Meet the Team
Melissa Ferguson - Lab Director
(melissa.ferguson@yale.edu)
Melissa Ferguson is an experimental social psychologist. She received her doctorate in social psychology from New York University in 2002, was a faculty member in the psychology department at Cornell University from 2002-2020, and then joined the psychology department at Yale University in 2020. Her research focuses on the implicit cognitive processes that enable evaluation, goal-pursuit, self-control, and social behavior. Three recent topics of research in the lab are how we can change our memories, how we control our behavior, and how we express prejudice. Her research has appeared in outlets such as Psychological Science, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Her CV is available here.
Debbie Lim - Lab Manager
(debbie.lim@yale.edu)
Debbie is a postgraduate associate who graduated from Sewanee: The University of the South, double majoring in Computer Science and Neuroscience. She is involved in frontend web development for the graduate students, as well as the management and organization of the lab. She is interested in exploring how cultural contexts influence the ways people perceive, interpret ad respond to others. Outside the lab, Debbie enjoys travelling, reading and learning new board games.
Graduate Student Advisees
Hope Harrington
Ming Ma
Kai Sheu
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(hope.harrington@yale.edu)
Hope is a fourth-year graduate student at Yale. She studies people's attitudes about those who have been incarcerated or otherwise implicated in the criminal legal system. Before coming to Yale, she was the Assistant Director for the Berkeley Culture Center, a center devoted to facilitating industry-academic partnership on the study of organizational culture, at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. She received her MA in Sociology and BAH in Psychology at Stanford.
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(ming.m.ma@yale.edu)
Ming is a fifth-year graduate student in social psychology at Yale. She is interested in (a) how people form impressions of individuals and groups and update them after learning new information, especially implicitly, (b) how target and perceiver characteristics (such as their social group memberships, personality, and life experiences) influence person perception, and (c) how judgments derived from people’s appearances (for example, how competent or trustworthy someone’s face looks) can fuel social inequalities and how to best reduce biases in first impressions. Ming earned her Honors BSc with high distinction in Psychology and Statistics at the University of Toronto where she worked with Dr. Nick Rule in the Social Perception & Cognition Lab. Outside of the lab, Ming enjoys taking nature walks, doing yoga, and trying out new restaurants.
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(chengkai.sheu@yale.edu)
Kai is a second-year PhD student at Yale University. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Yale-NUS College in Singapore. In general, Kai is interested in how people form and revise causal beliefs in social contexts, and how these beliefs shape and interact with impressions, moral judgment, blame, and perceptions of inequality. His interests span social cognition and moral psychology, examining topics such as growth mindset, victim perception, and structural explanations of behavior. Outside of research, he enjoys surfing, hiking, and trying out new banana bread recipes.
Undergraduate Students
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Sarah Michel
(sarah.michel@yale.edu) is a sophomore at Yale majoring in psychology. She's currently a RA to Emily Ritchie and aiding her investigation into implicit attitudes towards stigmatized groups/divisive policies. Outside of the lab, she loves all things social psychology with a passion towards moral judgements and cross-cultural research. Beyond psychology, Sarah enjoys watching movies, learning data science, doing stand up comedy, and posting videos on social media (sometimes serious, mostly jokes).
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![Janina Rothenberger]()
Janina Rothenberger
(janina.rothenberger@yale.edu) is a junior at Yale majoring in psychology. She will be working with Ming Ma at the Ferguson lab. She is particularly interested in understanding how stereotypes and implicit biases shape perceptions and interactions between social groups. She is also interested in how self-identity is constructed through social norms and how this affects personal achievements and interpersonal relationships. Beyond psychology, Janina enjoys playing field hockey, making jewelry and reading.
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![Maya Evans]()
Maya Evans
(maya.evans@yale.edu) is a sophomore at Yale majoring in psychology with a certificate in education studies. She is excited to start working with Ming Ma in Ferguson's lab and is specifically interested in understanding the impact of implicit biases and stereotyping on a psychological level. Beyond psychology, Maya works as a Writing Partner (at the Poorvu Center and with the Yale Prison Education Initiative) and volunteers with the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project. She also really enjoys theater and is the policy director of the Yale Dramatic Association.
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Anthony Booth, JR.
(anthony.boothjr@yale.edu) is an assistant vice president of business development at Pursuit as well as an Eli Whitney student at Yale studying cognitive science. Anthony brings his financial knowledge and experience from working with JPMorgan Chase for over 13 years to his work and his studies to pursue his goals of community development through financial knowledge and empowerment and research on the nature of belief as a cognitive process. Anthony has worked with not-for-profit organizations throughout his career, including volunteering as a big brother through Big Brother’s Big Sisters of New York City. Anthony is also a musician and enjoys writing music and traveling in his spare time.
Former Post-Doctoral Researchers In The Lab: Where Are They Now?
Benedek Kurdi
Benedek Kurdi is an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Paul Stillman
Paul Stillman is an assistant professor at Boston University.
Xi Shen
Xi Shen is an assistant professor at Texas Tech University.
Yochanan Bigman
Yochanan Bigman is an assistant professor at the Hebrew University.
Lab Alumni
Graduate Students
Stav Atir, Emily Balcetis, Jeremy Bentley, Travis Carter, Jeremy Cone, Clayton Critcher, Shai Davidai, Jun Fukukura, Chelsea Helion, Erik Helzer, Karlene Henko, Yoel Inbar, Amit Kumar, Thomas Mann, Shanette Porter, Jane Risen, Emily Rosenzweig, Benjamin Ruisch, Michael Wojnowicz, Nicholas Surdel, Tony Maiolatesi, Arin Korkmaz, Emily Ritchie
Undergraduate Students
Sevi Burget-Foster, Doga Unlu, Sophia Lee, Ahmed Darfur, Iris Zhao, Faiza Ahmad, Alejandra Alvarez, Hyewon Park Andres, Luiza Baroni, Thora Bjornsdottir, Rebecca Braimon, Iwona (Ivy) Chmielewska, Adam Davis, Hannah Deixler, Sarah Dickerman, Josh Eibelman, Colleen Giblin, Olivia Goldring, Alisa Hand, Selma Helal, Michelle Ip, Olivia Jackson, David Kalkstein, Faaiza Khan, Hong Seon (Kahlen) Kim, Devon Kimball, Taylor Knibb, Amanda Kumala, Minae Kwon, Vanessa Lazaro, Michele Lee, Thomas Lee, Brian Meagher, Danila Medvedev, Sonia Mehra, Dami Ojo, Annika Pinch, Melissa Quartner, Ramirez Nicolas Ramos, Jaime Rappaport, Jesse Reynolds, Dani Rodriguez, Kyra Rodriguez, Ruth Rose, Julia Sanderson, Samara Selden, Jihee Son, Austin Starks, Justin Starks, Anu Subramaniam, Amartya Utkarsh, Ariana Wolk, Kaitlin Woolley, Iris Yang, Lillian Yuan, Nadia Yusuf, Yijing Zhao, Mimi Zhuravitsky, Aleksandar Zvorinj, Rory Schoenberger, Shriya Anand, Max Su, Keenan Miller