Research

Members of the Stanford Media and Personality Lab are interested in personality and well-being, social and mobility behavior, and the physical and digital environments of everyday life. Broadly, our research is guided by a motivation to understand person-environment interactions – how people’s psychological characteristics and situational contexts shape one another and affect behavior. 

The majority of our theoretical and empirical work is focused on (1) understanding individual differences in real-world behavior, (2) identifying the demographic and psychological factors associated with different behaviors and contexts, and (c) examining the positive and negative well-being outcomes associated with behaviors and contexts of interest. In pursuing this work, we study both mediated and non-mediated behaviors (e.g., face-to-face conversations, calls, texts), as well as contexts (e.g., places, social media platforms). 

We take an ecological approach to our research that emphasizes the importance of studying people in their natural daily lives. To do so, we often conduct intensive longitudinal field studies using smartphone-based experience sampling and mobile sensing methods. But generally, we use a diverse range of methodologies and analytic techniques that include surveys, experience sampling, mobile sensing, ecological momentary interventions, multilevel and longitudinal modeling, and machine learning.

Below you can find more information about some of our current research projects: