Michelle YIK at HKUST

Lab Manager

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.

Ellick WONG | CV

PhD in Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2000)

Ellick joined HKUST in 2001. His research interests include decision making, language processing, and attention.

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.

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.

Anastasia LIU | CV

MPhil in Social Science, HKUST (expected in 2028)

Anastasia Liu is an MPhil student in Social Science at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, supervised by Professor Michelle Yik. She received her Honours Bachelor of Science in Psychology with High Distinction from the University of Toronto, with a minor in Education and Society. Her research interests focus on how individual characteristics, including personality traits and character strengths, interact with broader sociocultural and community contexts to shape identity development and psychological well-being across the lifespan.

Eva LIU

PhD in Psychology, Yale University

Winnie YANG

PhD Candidate, University of Groningen

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.

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