MEMBERS
Manager
Jennifer WANG | CV | Email
MSc in Child and Adolescents Mental Health, University College London (2023)
Before joining the research group in September 2025, Jennifer served as a well-being practitioner in secondary schools, providing mental-health support to adolescents. Her work in this setting deepened her curiosity about how emotions are related to personality.
Research Assistant
Jasmine Wong | CV | Email
BA in Psychology, Columbia University (2025)
Jasmine joined the research group in March 2026 after obtaining her BA degree in 2025. Her previous experience as a research assitant has sparked her interest towards the field. Her research interests include emotion and morality.
Research Associates
Nicolson SIU | CV
PhD in Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2015)
Nicolson is a neuropsychologist who joined the Division of Social Science at HKUST in 2022. His research focuses on human cognitive functions. Nicolson is committed on exploring the relationship between the brain and behavior with neurophysiological method like electroencephalography (EEG) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). He also conducted intervention studies to support children with special educational needs (SEN) and elderly with cognitive impairments. He has consultancy experience in projects related to neurophysiological assessment and training for children with SEN.
Research Assistant Professor
Mary MA | CV
PhD in Social Science, HKUST (2023)
Mary is a Research Assistant Professor at the Division of Social Science, HKUST. Prior to joining the division, she served as a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Psychology, University of Virginia from 2023 to 2024, and as a visiting scholar at the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University from 2022 to 2023. Her research focuses on social cognitive and emotional development, with a particular interest in how both children and adults utilize various cues to identify reliable partners for cooperation and trustworthy informants for learning in the social environment.
Post-doctoral Fellow
Sean GUO | CV
PhD in Psychology, The University of Hong Kong (2025)
After studying the role of memory in correcting misinformation at HKU, Sean is now working on integrating large language models into psychological research. His research interests are misinformation, individual differences, and memory.
Postgraduate Students
Jacky FENG | CV
MPhil in Social Science, HKUST (expected in 2026)
After obtaining the MA degree in Social Science from HKUST, Jacky decided to pursue his MPhil study in Fall 2024. His research interest focuses on the intersection between prosocial behavior and emotion.
Raquel YANG | CV
MPhil in Social Science, HKUST (expected in 2027)
After obtaining her BA in Psychology at the University of British Columbia, Raquel joined HKUST in Fall 2025 to pursue an MPhil in Social Science. Her research interests include emotion and motivation, parasocial interaction, and prosocial behaviors.
Poppy ZHU | CV
MPhil in Social Science, HKUST (2025)
Poppy joined the research group in August 2023 after obtaining her MA degree in social science from HKUST. She completed her MPhil study in the summer of 2025. Her research interest lies in the sentiment analysis of social media data.
ALUMNI
FOK Hung-kit
Lecturer, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
JIANG Da
Associate Professor, The Education University of Hong Kong
Ines LIN
Research Assistant Professor, The Education University of Hong Kong
Eva LIU
PhD Student, Yale University
Winnie YANG
PhD Candidate, University of Groningen
PUBLICATIONS
- Siu, N. Y.-F., Ching, K. C. H., Dagorne, H., & Yik, M. (2026). Wheels of happiness: What makes cyclists happy? International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 1-18.
- Ma, S., Chen, E. E., & Yik, M. (2026). When honesty meets modesty: Development of evaluations on lying about achievements. Developmental Science, 29, e70170.
- Yik, M., & Zhu Z. (in press). Mapping emotion around the world: Similarities and differences. In M. Yik (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of emotion and culture. Oxford University Press.
- Zhu, Z., & Yik, M. (2026). The emotional trajectory of the non-suicidal self-injury: Sentiment analysis using social media data. Journal of Computational Social Science, 9:7.
- Yik, M., Kwok, F. H. C., & De Roover, K. (2026). Measuring Chinese personality in eight minutes: A short measure of the five-factor model of personality. Journal of Personality Assessment,108, 90–100.
- Yik, M., & Siu, N. Y.-F. (2025). Who thrives in a public health crisis? Acta Psychologica, 253, 104636.
- Yik, M., & Siu, N. Y.-F. (2024). Extraverts suffer from social distancing: A 30-day diary study. Personality and Individual Differences, 218, 112433.
- Yik, M., Sze, I. N. L., Kwok, F. H. C., & Lin S. (2023). Mapping Chinese personality: An assessment of the psychometric properties of the NEO-PI-3 in monolingual and bilingual studies. Assessment, 30, 2031–2049.
- Yik, M., et al. (2023). On the relationship between valence and arousal in samples across the globe. Emotion, 23, 332-344.
- Yik, M., Pun, W. K., Kwok, F. H. C., Pho, J., & Ng, C. W. W. Ng (2023). Perceptions of landslide risks and warnings in Hong Kong. Landslides, 20(60), 1211-1224.
- Yik, M., & Chen, C. Z. (2023). Unravelling Chinese talk about emotion. Frontiers in Psychology, 14:1157863.
- Chen, X., & Yik, M. (2022). The emotional anatomy of the Wuhan lockdown: Sentiment analysis using Weibo data. JMIR Formative Research, 6(11): e37698.
- Yik, M., Wong, K. F. E., & Zeng, K. J. (2019). Anchoring-and-adjustment during affect inferences. Frontiers in Psychology, 9:2567.
