Multilingualism & Decision-Making Lab

Boaz Keysar

Principal Investigator

Boaz Keysar is the William Benton Professor in Psychology at the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. from the Hebrew University in 1984 and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1989 under the mentorship of Sam Glucksberg. After serving as a visiting scholar at Stanford University, Keysar joined the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1991. Together with his students and collaborators, Keysar studies the relationship between decision-making and language use. He has contributed to the study of figurative language and to the understanding of perspective taking. Professor Keysar has made discoveries about the impact of using a foreign language on choice, the way that language modality affects reasoning, how language affects health decisions and negotiations, and more. His research has received substantial interest in media outlets such as Scientific American, NY Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, SF Chronicle, The Economist, Der Spiegel, China Daily, MSNBC, NPR, and Freakonomics.

Keysar’s honors include a Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fulbright Scholarship. He received major grants from NIH and NSF. He was awarded the President’s Service award by President Clinton for his non-profit work.

Zeynep Aslan

Zeynep is a doctoral student in the Cognition program working with Boaz Keysar. She received both her BA and MA in Psychology from Koç University. During her graduate studies, she worked in the Language and Cognition Lab under the guidance of Dr. Tilbe Göksun and studied the bi-directional interaction between language and emotion processing.

Broadly, Zeynep is interested in understanding whether and how the language we speak affects our everyday decisions, interactions and experiences.

Louisa Belian

Louisa is a doctoral student in the Cognition program working with Boaz Keysar. She received her B.A. in Cognitive Science in Spring 2021 from the University of California, Berkeley.

Louisa is broadly interested in exploring the relationship between language and persuasion. She is particularly interested in how verbal and visual communication influences perceptions of power, negotiation, and decision-making.

Claire Guang

Claire is a doctoral student in the Cognition program working with Boaz Keysar. She received her B.A. in Psychology with minors in Cognitive Science and Chinese from Carleton College in Spring 2021. After college, she worked as a project coordinator and lab manager for the Cognition, Learning, and Development Lab under Nicole McNeil.

Claire’s research interests broadly include the interplay between language context and cognitive processes in shaping the conceptual understanding that underlies the decision-making process.

Xinyue (Rita) Fan

Rita is a graduate student from the MAPSS program with a concentration in psychology. She received her B.A in Human Resources Management and Psychology from Rutgers University – New Brunswick in 2024. Rita is exploring her research interests in social psychology and Industrial & Organizational psychology. She is currently working under the mentorship of Dr. Janet Geipel, Louisa Belian and Dr. Keysar, on the project “How Language Modality Influences Risk Behavior”. Outside of the lab, she enjoys taking walks by the lake and playing on the swing.

Huidi Yuan

Huidi is a master’s student in the MAPSS program concentrating on Psychology. She received her B.S. in Psychology and Mathematical Economics from the University of Richmond in 2024. Her research interests are judgment and decision-making in social contexts and other topics in the interdisciplinary of psychology and economics. In her free time, Huidi enjoys reading, musicals, traveling, and exploring delicious foods. 

Elena Puente

Elena is an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and Economics. With an interest in the interplay between language and cognition, she is curious about how English and Spanish speakers navigate decisions differently. In her free time, Elena enjoys singing with the University’s Motet Choir, trying new recipes, and running along Lake Michigan.

Alexandra Moreno-Romero

Alexandra is a student simultaneously completing her BA and MA in Psychology at the University of Chicago. What interests Alexandra about psychology is the social aspect of it and how people negotiate between themselves and across cultures. With the question of culture comes language. How is it that people pick and choose what details are relevant to their audience when formulating decisions? In her limited free time, you can find Alexandra making hyper-specific Spotify playlists and writing in her journal.

TianTian Xu

TianTian is an undergraduate student studying Comparative Human Development, Cognitive Science, and Psychology. She is broadly interested in exploring how bilingualism and cross cultural interactions influence judgment and decision making in third culture kids. Outside the lab, she can be found performing in the campus circus and planning for the next UChicago Scavenger Hunt. 

Seokhwa Lee

Seokhwa received her B.A. in English Language (Linguistics) and Literature, with a minor in Psychology, from Yonsei University in South Korea. Her research interests lie in how bilingualism affects our emotions, decisions and behavior.

Jean Ng

Jean is a psychology major at The University of Hong Kong. She has a passion for research in areas including multilingualism, and how autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects children’s cognitive abilities such as learning and decision-making. She is also interested in researching how language modality creates different effects on decision making. Outside the lab, you can find her watching films and learning languages (inefficiently). 

Alisha Arya

Alisha is an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and Business Economics at the University of Chicago. She is passionate about studying decision-making, particularly with financial applications to consumer and investor behavior, and is interested in the intersections between language, behavior, and cognition. Her research interests primarily focus on framing, and how the nuances of language can drive both optimal and irrational decisions. In her free time, you can find Alisha dancing Kathak, scrapbooking, or exploring cafes.

Sherlyn Pesantez

Sherlyn is an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Her research interests lie broadly in the field of behavioral science, specifically exploring cognitive and behavioral biases, decision-making, and choice architecture. Outside of the lab and class, she enjoys cooking and wheel throwing in a ceramics studio.

Engelina Xiong

Engelina is an undergraduate student majoring in Public Policy and Cognitive Science. Passionate about the intersection between behavior and policy, she’s interested in how people’s backgrounds and experiences with language shape their biases, perceptions, and decisions. In her free time, Engelina enjoys reading, playing piano and viola, lamenting the passage of time, and exploring.

Mike Li

Mike is an undergraduate student majoring in Psychology and Economics at the University of Chicago. He is interested in the cross-cultural differences in cognition, thinking style, social interactions, leading to differences in decision-making. In his free time, Mike enjoys working out and sim-racing. 

Linchi Zhang

Linchi is an undergraduate student majoring in Economics and Political Science at the University of Chicago. She is particularly interested in the intersectionality between multilingualism and the socio-economic dynamics within different cultural communities. Linchi is passionate about exploring how language shapes people’s decision-making process. In her free time, she likes to read, write, and film.

Janet Geipel, Assistant Professor, University of Exeter

 Constantinos Hadjichristidis, Associate Professor, University of Trento