Team
As a social psychologist, I’m interested in how subtle, often unnoticeable, social psychological mechanisms help maintain intergroup inequality, and how they contribute to disparities in health, mental health, and well-being.
I focus on how different social factors, such as social norms and group stereotypes, affect peoples’ explicit and implicit perceptions, goals, and motivations and how these, in turn, affect their behaviors. This includes, for example, how societal beauty norms affect women’s and men’s health and mental health, how stereotypes about specific social groups (gender, racial, or ethnic stereotypes) affect medical decision making and behaviors towards patients who belong to these groups, and how gender stereotypes affect doctors’ career choices.
The lab is a place for people from different disciplines and backgrounds (e.g., psychologists, social workers, healthcare workers) who are interested in how psychology could be used to improve patients’ health and well-being
Dr. Shahar Zaguri-Vittenberg
Postdoctoral researcher
Shahar is a postdoctoral fellow and an occupational therapist, holding a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University. Her research focuses on the bidirectional relationships between health, daily functioning, and psychosocial factors. This includes the psychological and functional implications of health conditions, taking into account both the social-environmental context and the internalization of social norms—and how these factors shape individuals’ mental health and well-
Kim Sznajder
Ph.D Candidate
M.A. in organizational psychology
Chen Levine
MD-PhD Candidate
Chen is an MD-PhD student. She holds a B.Sc. in Biotechnology from Tel-Hai College. Her research interests lie in the broader contexts of medical care, emphasizing its psychological and cognitive components and their contribution to overall health, with a particular focus on women’s health
Khola Daher
Ph.D Candidate
M.A. in medical psychology
Yasmin Azi
Pre-doctoral student
M.A. in educational psychology
Yasmin is a pre-doctoral student. She’s interested in studying mental health outcomes among women in the transition to motherhood. She’s especially interested in how self-objectification affects women at different stages of becoming a mother: pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and postpartum.
Rona Zimerman Bar-Lev
MSc student
B.A. in Psychology
Rona is an MSc student whose primary research interests lie at the intersection of social psychology and psychobiology. Rona is particularly interested in how social environments, biological processes, and neuropsychological mechanisms interact to shape health and behavior. Her current research examines the effects of global warming on the physical and mental health of older adults.
Former students:
Natali Mashkovich – Medical research student