Meet the Team
Dr. Dorsa Amir
Assistant Professor
& Director of MACLab
Dr. Dorsa Amir is an incoming Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. She earned a B.S. in Anthropology from UCLA in 2012, a PhD in Anthropology from Yale University in 2018, and completed postdoctoral training in the Boston College and UC Berkeley Departments of Psychology. Dr. Amir's research investigates the routes through which culture shapes the developing mind, with a focus on the early determinants of preferences, judgments, and decision-making. You can learn more about Dr. Amir and her research at her personal website.
Julia Bainbridge
Lab Manager
Julia graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2023 with a B.S. in Psychological & Brain Sciences and minor in Sociocultural Linguistics. She previously researched intergroup empathy bias in children and the role of cultural phenomena in influencing children’s social decision-making. She is interested in how language enables children across cultures to learn about their social world.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Julia Smith
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr. Julia Smith is an incoming postdoctoral researcher in the MAC lab. She earned a B.S. in Psychology and B.A. in Intercultural Studies from Wofford College in 2015, a Master’s in Psychology from the New School for Social Research in 2018, and a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan in 2024. Her research focus is how people make normative “should” judgments about how they should think about and treat others, and how the world should work. See her personal website for more information!
Affiliated Researchers
Jenny Chen
Master's Student,
Duke Data Science
Jenny graduated from UC Berkeley in 2021 with a degree in Cognitive Science and is currently a Master's in Data Science student at Duke. She previously researched the development of causal reasoning in adolescents, specifically their preferences of stability. She is interested in applying computational approaches to understand the ways and extent to which culture impacts cognition.
The MACLab is currently looking for new members to join our team! Check out open postings by going to the Join Our Team! page.
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