dr. R. (Rui) Sun

I am now a postdoc researcher at Department of Social Psychology, UvA, working with Dr. Disa Sauter.

Before coming to UvA, I completed my PhD in social psychology with Dr. Alex Kogan at University of Cambridge (Jan 2018), my MRes of Cognitive Neuroscience with Dr. Sarah White at University College London (Sep 2013), and my BS in Psychology with Prof. Shihui Han at Peking University (July 2012). 

I am now working on the positive emotion experience across cultures.

Broadly speaking, I have three lines of research interests:

My first research interest is about the experience of positive emotions across culture: what, how, when, and why positive emotions are experienced, taking into account the role of culture in shaping emotions. More over, I am interested in how distinct positive emotions relate to resilience, health, and well-being; and whether there is any cultural difference for this link. 

My second research interest is about the expression of emotions on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin), and how this expression predicts off-line behaviours such as wellbeing, decision making, health and prosociality.

The third research interest is about how individuals' social status influences the experience, expression, and appraisal of positive emotions.

I am using questionnaire, experiments, experience sampling and machine learning methods to explore the research questions. I am specifically interested in applying the "big data" idea in my research.