Rui Pei
Papers
| 1 | R Pei, J Zaki (2025). Connecting with others: how social connections improve the happiness of young adults. Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford link to paper |
| 1 | R Pei, S Grayson, S Soh, RE Appel, S Garcia, A Bouwer, E Huang, MO Jackson, GM Harari, J Zaki (accepted at Nature Human Behavior). Bridging the Gap: The Impact of Empathic Perception on Social Connections. link to paper |
| 2 | R Pei & J Zaki (in prep). Quantifying the value of social risk taking. PsyArXiv link to paper |
| 3 | J Liu, J So, R Pei (2025). Diminished valuation in the brain: how repeated exposure reduces health message engagement. Annals of Behavioral Medicine link to paper |
| 1 | R Pei, E Kranzler, EB Falk (2024). Cultural Values Influence the Developmental Trajectory of Resistance to Social Influence Over the Course of Adolescence. Developmental Psychobiology link to paper |
| 1 | R Pei, S Grayson, S Soh, RE Appel, S Garcia, A Bouwer, E Huang, MO Jackson, GM Harari, J Zaki (accepted at Nature Human Behavior). Bridging the Gap: The Impact of Empathic Perception on Social Connections. link to paper |
| 2 | R Pei & J Zaki (in prep). Quantifying the value of social risk taking. PsyArXiv link to paper |
| 3 | J Liu, J So, R Pei (2025). Diminished valuation in the brain: how repeated exposure reduces health message engagement. Annals of Behavioral Medicine link to paper |
| 1 | R Pei, AL Courtney, I Ferguson, C Brennan, J Zaki (2023). A neural signature of social support mitigates negative emotion. Scientific Reports link to paper |
| 2 | R Pei, D Cosme, ME Andrews, BD Mattan, J Carreras‐Tartak, EB Falk (2023). Cultural influence on COVID‐19 cognitions and growth speed: the role of collectivism. Social and Personality Psychology Compass link to paper |
| 3 | M Minich, EB Falk, N Cooper, D Cosme, HY Chan, R Pei, MB O’Donnell, … (2023). Neural correlates associated with conformity in adolescent and young adult men. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience link to paper |
| 4 | C Brennan, A Aggarwal, R Pei, D Sussillo, A Proekt (2023). One dimensional approximations of neuronal dynamics reveal computational strategy. PLOS Computational Biology link to paper |
| 5 | ME Andrews, R Pei, N Lauharatanahirun, AM Paul, EB Falk, RL Nabi, … (2023). Social Media and the Social Brain. Emotions in the Digital World link to paper |
| 1 | Y Kang, D Cosme, R Pei, P Pandey, J Carreras-Tartak, EB Falk (2021). Purpose in life, loneliness, and protective health behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Gerontologist link to paper |
| 2 | EC Baek, MB O’Donnell, C Scholz, R Pei, JO Garcia, JM Vettel, EB Falk (2021). Activity in the brain’s valuation and mentalizing networks is associated with propagation of online recommendations. Scientific reports link to paper |
| 1 | R Pei, N Lauharatanahirun, CN Cascio, MB O’Donnell, JT Shope, … (2020). Neural processes during adolescent risky decision making are associated with conformity to peer influence. Developmental cognitive neuroscience link to paper |
| 2 | R Pei, D Cosme, M Andrews, B Mattan, E Falk (2020). Cultural influence on COVID-19 cognitions and growth speed: the role of cultural collectivism. PsyArXiv link to paper |
| 1 | R Pei, R Schmälzle, EC Kranzler, MB O’Donnell, EB Falk (2019). Adolescents’ neural response to tobacco prevention messages and sharing engagement. American Journal of Preventive Medicine link to paper |
| 2 | EC Kranzler, R Schmälzle, R Pei, RC Hornik, EB Falk (2019). Message-elicited brain response moderates the relationship between opportunities for exposure to anti-smoking messages and message recall. Journal of Communication link to paper |
| 3 | RUI Pei, EC Kranzler, AB Suleiman, EB Falk (2019). Promoting adolescent health: insights from developmental and communication neuroscience. Behavioural Public Policy link to paper |
| 4 | EC Kranzler, R Schmälzle, MB O’Donnell, R Pei, EB Falk (2019). Adolescent neural responses to antismoking messages, perceived effectiveness, and sharing intention. Media Psychology link to paper |
Conference presentations & invited talks
| 1 | Neural Representation in the Salience Network Supports Social Risk Decision Making (April, 2025) Social and Affective Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting Chicago, IL link to video |
| 2 | Bridging the Gap: The Impact of Empathic Perception on Social Connection (March, 2025) Society for Affective Science (SAS) Annual Convention Portland, OR |
| 3 | Bridging the Gap: The Impact of Empathic Perception on Social Connection (February, 2025) SPSP Annual Convention Denver, CO |
| 4 | Not Motivated or Too Scared? The Dissociable Roles of Trait Anxiety and Depression in Social Risk Taking (May, 2023) International Communication Association Annual Meeting. Toronto, Canada |
| 5 | Ecological Momentary Assessment of Empathy Contagion in a College Student Social Network. (May, 2023) International Communication Association Annual Meeting. Toronto, Canada |
| 6 | Reward-related neural response during risky decision making reflects adolescents’ social network clustering structure. (April, 2023) Social and Affective Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting Santa Babara, CA |
| 7 | Reward-related neural response during risky decision making reflects adolescents’ social network clustering structure. (March, 2023) Society for Research on Adolescents Biennial meeting Salt Lake City, Utah |
| 8 | Social risk taking and social networks in adolescents (January, 2022) Stanford Psychology, Affective Science Seminar Palo Alto, CA |
| 9 | Social risk taking and social networks in adolescents (April, 2022) Developmental Psychology at Dominican College of California Online |
| 10 | Neural activity during risky decision making reflects adolescents’ online social network clustering structure. (March, 2020) Society for Research on Adolescents Biennial meeting (conference rescheduled to 2021 due to COVID-19). NA |
| 11 | Habitual social media use is associated with increased neural activity in the mentalizing network during social exclusion. (May, 2020) International Communication Association Annual Meeting. Online link to video |
| 12 | Adolescent’s neural and self-report responses to fear vs. humor appeals in tobacco-prevention messages. (November, 2019) The Medicine, Humanity and Media: Health China & Health Communication. Beijing, China |
| 13 | Neural activity during risky decision making reflects online social network clustering structure. (May, 2019) Best papers in Communcation Science and Biology, International Communication Association Annual Meeting. Washington, DC |
| 14 | Safety versus risk endorsing peer attitudes influence adolescent risk taking through distinct neural mechanisms. (May, 2018) International Communication Association Annual Conference. Prague, Czech Republic. |
| 15 | Neural activity during anti-smoking message exposure predicts subsequent message elaboration. (May, 2017) Best Papers in Information Systems Division, International Communication Association Annual Conference. San Diego, CA |
Open Science Data Reports
| Framing effects on the effectiveness and virality of health messages related to COVID-19 (With the Communication Neuroscience Lab at Upenn) |