Dissertation Award Applications
Psychology of technology Dissertation Awards 2026
The Psychology of Technology Institute hosts an annual dissertation award program for doctoral students around the world to help them gain support and visibility for their work. In 2026, there were so many incredible applicants that we expanded to include 4 Dissertation Awards (with prizes of $1,500) and 4 Honorable Mentions. This initiative is in line with the Institute’s mission of connecting and supporting scholars from multiple scientific disciplines (e.g., psychology, computer science, marketing, organizational behavior, communications, information science, anthropology) who conduct research examining the psychological determinants and consequences of adopting new technologies (e.g., AI assistants, LLMs, social media, algorithmic decision making, robots, smartphones, AR/VR), including how the adoption and use of these technologies are transforming how people live, work, play, and interact. Congratulations to our 2026 winners!
Dissertation Award Winners 2026
Award Winners (in alphabetical order):
Dunigan Folk, Ph.D., Psychology, University of British Columbia - "When, Why, and for Whom Do Social Chatbots Provide Feelings of Social Connection?"
Georgia Turner, Ph.D., Neuroscience, University of Cambridge - “Computational approaches to understanding personal autonomy over digital technology use”
Pat Pataranutaporn, Ph.D., Media Arts & Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - “Cyborg Psychology: The Art & Science of Designing Human-AI Systems that Support Human Flourishing”
Rafael M. Batista, Ph.D., Behavioral Science, Chicago Booth School of Business - “Words that Work: Using AI to Accelerate the Discovery of How Language Affects Human Decisions”
Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order):
Eric Park, Ph.D., Marketing, Columbia University - “Immersive Technologies in Marketing: A Spatial Framework”
Tara Srirangarajan, Ph.D., Psychology, Stanford University - “From Immersive Virtual Reality to Social Media Analytics: A Multimodal Approach to Understanding Affect Dynamics”
Trevor Spelman, Ph.D., Management & Organizations, Kellogg School of Management - “The Suppression–Misperception Cycle: How Miscalibrated Expectations Drive Self-Censorship in Online Group Discussions and How Platform Design Can Disrupt It”
Yuning Liu, Ph.D., Population Health Science, Harvard University - “Understanding Digital Well-being in Social Media Use: App-Specific Behavior, Goal Pursuit, and Platform Design”