Humans are remarkable in their ability to engage in large-scale acts of cooperation. To make such acts possible, humans have to connect and work efficiently with others. My goal is to understand how people engage in effective and successful social interactions.
Here are some of my main research questions:
How do people think about other minds across different social contexts?
Consider two scenarios: (1) you wanting to make your crying friend feel better and (2) you wanting to outsmart your friend in a game. To be successful in both cases, you should consider the contents of your friend's mind (e.g., their preference for ice cream over bad jokes when they're upset; whether they are trying to bluff in the game). I investigate the extent to which people mentalize (think about others' minds) across different social contexts. For instance, I examine commonalities and differences in mentalizing across cooperative and competitive interactions in children and adults.
What types of dynamics between people exist during social interactions? How do these dynamics differ for friends and strangers?
Once in a blue moon you may hit it off with a blind date, but it is more likely that you and your date have no interest chatting past the 4-hour mark. What makes for a good social interaction? In this line of work, I conduct studies in which I record conversations between two people and have people fill out a long survey about themselves, their thoughts on the conversation, and their impressions of their conversation partner. In some studies, I even scan their brains using fMRI while they talk to one another! I mainly study interaction partners who are complete strangers, but in some experiments I also study close friends. I examine conversational, behavioral, and neural dynamics between interaction partners and investigate the types of dynamics that lead people to feel closer to one another.
What leads people to share information about themselves with others?
Think about the different ways you communicate with others: in person, over Zoom, via Instagram, over Whatsapp. People love to reveal aspects of themselves to others: their thoughts and opinions, the activities they engage in, and other life updates. In this line of work, I'm interested in understanding the different cognitive processes that support self-disclosure: reward processes, social cognitive processes, and self-referential processes.
For my CV, click here.
Publications
Under review or in prep
Published or in press
Here are some of my main research questions:
How do people think about other minds across different social contexts?
Consider two scenarios: (1) you wanting to make your crying friend feel better and (2) you wanting to outsmart your friend in a game. To be successful in both cases, you should consider the contents of your friend's mind (e.g., their preference for ice cream over bad jokes when they're upset; whether they are trying to bluff in the game). I investigate the extent to which people mentalize (think about others' minds) across different social contexts. For instance, I examine commonalities and differences in mentalizing across cooperative and competitive interactions in children and adults.
What types of dynamics between people exist during social interactions? How do these dynamics differ for friends and strangers?
Once in a blue moon you may hit it off with a blind date, but it is more likely that you and your date have no interest chatting past the 4-hour mark. What makes for a good social interaction? In this line of work, I conduct studies in which I record conversations between two people and have people fill out a long survey about themselves, their thoughts on the conversation, and their impressions of their conversation partner. In some studies, I even scan their brains using fMRI while they talk to one another! I mainly study interaction partners who are complete strangers, but in some experiments I also study close friends. I examine conversational, behavioral, and neural dynamics between interaction partners and investigate the types of dynamics that lead people to feel closer to one another.
What leads people to share information about themselves with others?
Think about the different ways you communicate with others: in person, over Zoom, via Instagram, over Whatsapp. People love to reveal aspects of themselves to others: their thoughts and opinions, the activities they engage in, and other life updates. In this line of work, I'm interested in understanding the different cognitive processes that support self-disclosure: reward processes, social cognitive processes, and self-referential processes.
For my CV, click here.
Publications
Under review or in prep
- Tsoi, L., Lawrence, K., Tamir, D., & Dapretto, M. (in prep). Self-disclosure engages neural mechanisms associated with reward in adolescents.
- Tsoi, L., Hamlin, J. K., Waytz, A., Baron, A. S., & Young, L. (in prep). Preschool children’s false belief understanding of negative versus positive actions.
- Tsoi, L. & Young, L. (in prep). Mental state representations of harmful versus helpful agents in adults.
- Tsoi, L., Lee, Y-S., & Young, L. (in prep). Neural substrates for categorical perception of race.
Published or in press
- Tsoi, L., Burns, S., Falk, E., Tamir, D.I. (2022). The promises and pitfalls of fMRI hyperscanning for social interaction research. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. [pdf]
- Kumar, M. M., Tsoi, L., Lee, M. S., Cone, J., McAuliffe, K. (2021). Nationality dominates gender in decision-making across two cooperative games. PLoS ONE. [pdf]
- Tsoi, L., Hamlin, J. K., Waytz, A., Baron, A. S., & Young, L. (2021). A cooperative advantage for theory of mind in children and adults. Social Cognition, 39(1), 19-40. doi: 10.1521/soco.2021.39.1.19 [pdf] [supplementary materials] [data and analysis scripts]
- Tsoi, L. & McAuliffe, K. (2019). Individual differences in theory of mind predict inequity aversion in children. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. doi: 10.1177/0146167219867957 [pdf] [data and analysis scripts]
- Tsoi, L., Dungan, J., Chakroff, A., & Young, L. (2018). Neural substrates for moral judgments of psychological versus physical harm. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsy029 [pdf] [supplemental materials] [data and analysis scripts]
- Tsoi, L. & Young, L. (2018). Moral reasoning. In S. Thompson-Schill (Ed.), Language & Thought. Volume 4 of The Stevens’ Handbook of Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience (4th ed.). Editor-in-chief: J. Wixted. Wiley. [pdf]
- Tsoi, L., Dungan, J., Waytz, A., & Young, L. (2016). Distinct neural patterns of social cognition for cooperation versus competition. NeuroImage. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2016.04.069 [pdf] [supplemental materials]
- Tsoi, L. (2016). A unified versus componential view of understanding minds. In J. Sytsma & W. Buckwalter (Eds.), A Companion to Experimental Philosophy. John Wiley & Sons Ltd. [pdf]
- Young, L. & Tsoi, L. (2013). When mental states matter, when they don’t, and what that means for morality. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7, 585–604. doi: 10.1111/spc3.12044 [pdf]