Our Team
Allison Earl – Lab Manager
Dr. Alison Earl is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan and Director of the Health, Attitudes, and Influence Lab (HAILab). She is also a Faculty Associate at the Research Center for Group Dynamics and a Faculty Affiliate of the Department of Communication Studies and the Joint Program in Social Work and Psychology.
Dr. Earl earned her B.A. in Anthropology and B.S. in Psychology from the University of Florida and her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
Her research examines persuasion as a fundamentally interpersonal process—how people support one another through communication by shaping information, managing emotions, and signaling inclusion. Her work is guided by two core goals: (1) understanding the mechanisms behind message engagement and avoidance, and (2) leveraging those mechanisms to promote healthy living and reduce disparities.
Using multi-method, theory-driven approaches—including experimental designs, psychophysiology, naturalistic observation, meta-analysis, and computational modeling—Dr. Earl’s research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the U-M Office of Research, and MIDAS’s Data Science Initiative.
Her scholarship appears in leading journals across social, clinical, health, and communication psychology, including Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Health Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, and Journal of Communication, as well as invited commentaries and editorials in Science and Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Graduate Students
Doctoral Students with projects in the HAILab
Hannah Ramil
4th-Year Ph.D. Candidate in Social Psychology; Faculty Advisors: David Dunning & Alison Earl
Hannah Ramil is a Ph.D. candidate whose research focuses on the psychological processes underlying political polarization. Specifically, she examines what comes to mind when people think about political parties. She has also investigated the role of national identity in shaping anti-Native prejudice.
Haley Mehlman
3rd-Year Ph.D. Candidate in Social Psychology; Faculty Advisors: Alison Earl & David Dunning
Haley Mehlman is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Social Psychology program at the University of Michigan. She received a B.S. in Psychological and Brain Sciences and a B.A. in Communication from UC Santa Barbara. Her research investigates how experts, such as doctors and scientists, can communicate uncertain or ambiguous information in ways that the public likes, trusts, and understands. Outside the lab, she enjoys spending time outdoors, traveling, and reminiscing about the sun.
Noa Boker Segal
2nd-Year Ph.D. Candidate in Social Psychology; Faculty Advisors: Amie Gordon & Alison Earl
Noa is a graduate student advised by Professor Amie Gordon and Professor Allison Earl. She earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on how people come to understand others’ emotional experiences and how this understanding shapes decision-making in social situations. She is also interested in integrating computational methods into her work.
Martha Cooper
1st-Year Ph.D. Candidate in Social Psychology; Faculty Advisors: Alison Earl & David Dunning
Martha is a first-year Ph.D. student in Social Psychology. She earned her B.S. in Psychology and Philosophy from Florida State University and conducted research in developmental cognitive science at Franklin & Marshall College. Her research interests center on epistemology and the processes underlying belief change.
Lab Manager
Jordan Levy
HAIL Lab Manager, Senior Honors Thesis Student
Jordan is an honors student at the University of Michigan, majoring in Psychology with a focus on social psychology. She is currently conducting her thesis in the HAILab, examining the gap between the intended motives of an information sender and the interpreted motives of the recipient, with particular attention to the role of personal relevance. Her research interests include human motivations, biased interpretations, and the discrepancies between intent and interpretation. Jordan has been a research assistant in the HAILab since her sophomore year.
Lab Members
At Michigan, we use a shared mentoring model—each student works closely with two faculty mentors.
Students are also encouraged to attend meetings across other research groups.
Our lab holds joint meetings with Dr. David Dunning and the Self and Social Insight Lab to foster collaboration and idea exchange.
Tong Suo
6th-Year Ph.D. Candidate in Social Psychology; Faculty Advisors: Catherine Thomas & David Dunning
As of September 2025, Tong is a 5th/ 6th (ugh oh) year PhD student student in the Social area. Her research falls into two main areas: (1) well-being in cross-cultural settings and (2) self-knowledge and (over)confidence. Her work at the SaSI/HAILab focuses primarily on the latter. Outside of research, Tong is supported by an “army” of hamster plushies that have been with her since the COVID era, along with a sponsored cat back in China named 1400.
Kaelyn Sabree
4th-Year Ph.D. Candidate in Social Psychology; Faculty Advisors: Josh Ackerman & David Dunning
Kaelyn is a Ph.D. candidate in Social Psychology. Her research examines how people use different types of information and cues to navigate their social worlds, particularly when those cues are ambiguous, conflicting, or violate normative expectations. She is especially interested in how individuals form impressions and stereotypes of others when their emotional expressions, ecological backgrounds, or behaviors deviate from what is socially expected.
Dani Grant
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School for Environment and Sustainability; Faculty Advisors: Paige Fischer and Kika Santana (University of Washington Seattle)
Dani is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. She earned her PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2025. Her research broadly examines judgment and decision-making under uncertainty, with a focus on risk perception, social cognition, and social identity processes. Her current work centers on three primary areas: (1) how patterns of media consumption shape political polarization and climate change attitudes, (2) how individuals perceive and respond to “creeping” environmental hazards such as wildfire smoke and viral infection, and (3) and the cognitive and social mechanisms that guide decisions about trust and cooperation with strangers.
Amelie Rossmaier
5th-Year Ph.D. Candidate in Social Psychology; Faculty Advisors: Shinobu Kitayama & Rich Gonzalez
Amelie is a doctoral student in the HAIL Lab and the Culture & Cognition Lab. Her research primarily focuses on trust and social influence. Because we are constantly surrounded by social information, she is interested in understanding when and why we rely on others, the extent to which we are aware of this reliance, and how it shapes the way we see ourselves. She also has emerging interests in AI-supported decision-making and in understanding the dynamics of choice overload.
Atakan Atamer
3rd-Year Ph.D. Candidate in Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience; Faculty Advisors: Priti Shah & Andras Molnar
Atakan Atamer is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience program. His research examines the role of intuitions in reasoning, the situational factors that influence receptiveness to belief-conflicting information, and individual differences in thinking styles as predictors of daily judgment and decision-making. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis—while imagining he is better at it than he actually is.
Research Assistants
Sydney Lesnick
SASI Lab Research Assistant, Senior Honors Thesis Student
Sydney is a senior at the University of Michigan, majoring in Psychology and Communications & Media. She has been a research assistant in the Self and Social Insight Lab since October 2023 and has developed a strong interest in psychology. She is currently pursuing an honors thesis examining the relationship between the planning fallacy and intellectual humility, and how this relationship may be moderated by trait-level narcissism.
Dante Longarzo
SASI Lab Research Assistant, Sophmore
Dante is an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan studying Psychology and Physics. He is currently involved in the Self and Social Insight Lab, working with Dr. David Dunning to explore the Dunning–Kruger effect—the tendency for people to misjudge their own knowledge and ability.
He assists in running complex Dunning–Kruger follow-up studies in Qualtrics, where ingenuity and resourcefulness are essential for creating effective designs. His contributions provide valuable input from the perspective of a motivated undergraduate researcher.
Lab Alumni
Susannah Cazaubon
Veronica Derricks
Professor of Psychology at University of Colorado Boulder
Harley Dutcher
Program Officer, Evaluator, and Researcher for Social Impact
Izzy Gainsburg
Associate Director of Stanford University’s Politics and Social Change Lab (PASCL)
Clint McKenna
Behavioral Scientist at California Social Labs
Ramona Perry
Managing Partner at Emergence Collective
Koji Takahashi
Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University
Mike Hall
Senior Principal at ghSMART
David Hauser
Professor at Queens University
Hakeem Jefferson
Professor of Political Science at Stanford University
Neil Lewis Jr.
Professor of Communications at Cornell
Christina Nisson
Chrissy Carino
Developer
Lab Managers
Julia Briskin 2012-2014
Currently pursuing her Doctoral Degree at Wayne State
Andrew Moore 2014-2015
Currently working in the University’s School of Social Work
Research Assistants
Alyssa Tender 2012-2015 (Honors Thesis)
Chitra Ramanathan 2012-2015 (Senior Thesis)
Shao Wei Chia 2012-2013
Michaela Green 2012-2013
Nora Greenstein 2013-2015
Greg Morsfield 2012-2014
Lauren Olswanger 2012-2013 (Honors Thesis)
Mollie Pester 2012-2015
Ally Rooker 2013-2014
Chloe Sprauge
Nilam Trivedi
Anita Bajpai 2013-2014
Matthew Eisner 2012-2013
Megan Ryan 2012-2013
Stacey Sklepinski 2012-2013
Get in touch
HAILab
3000 East Hall
phone: 734.763.1133
Psychology Department
1004 East Hall
530 Church Street
phone: 734.764.2580
