RESEARCH
My research explores the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying social perception, examining how we form impressions across few-second neural responses to enduring cultural patterns. By integrating insights from social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and data science, and employing advanced computational methods including machine learning and network modeling, I aim to understand how humans navigate increasingly complex social environments—both physical and digital. I investigate three interconnected themes:
Together, these research streams advance theoretical understanding of social cognition while developing practical interventions for reducing bias, improving intergroup relations, and navigating human-AI interaction in our interconnected world.
- Cognitive Architecture of Impression Formation
- Strategic Self-Presentation and Social Hierarch
- Human-AI Interaction and Digital Identity
Together, these research streams advance theoretical understanding of social cognition while developing practical interventions for reducing bias, improving intergroup relations, and navigating human-AI interaction in our interconnected world.
Cognitive Architecture of Impression Formation
My work reveals how social judgments emerge through complex algorithms operating across multiple timescales. Using fMRI multivariate pattern analysis, we demonstrated that racial stereotypes fundamentally alter perceptual processing at the neural level. Through large-scale cross-cultural studies, we revealed that impression formation reflects region-specific personality structures learned through cultural experience. Recent work shows that uncertainty avoidance shapes how distinctly people perceive different traits; individuals uncomfortable with ambiguity form more separated, fine-grained impressions. We also discovered that prejudice fragments the natural coherence of positive impressions for disadvantaged groups, forcing them to prove each positive quality independently while advantaged groups benefit from automatic trait generalization. Developmental studies reveal that children's conceptual trait knowledge matures before their face-based impressions, suggesting top-down scaffolding of social perception.
Key Publications:
Oh, D., Vartiainen, H., & Freeman, J. B. (in press). Racial stereotypes bias the neural representation of objects towards perceived weapons. Nature Communications.
Oh, D., Martin, J. D., & Freeman, J. B. (2022). Personality across world regions predicts variability in the structure of face impressions. Psychological Science, 33(8), 1240-1256.
Oh, D., Moner, F., Tan, N., Hong, R., & Teo, H. M. (2025). Self-other mirroring in personality structure. Manuscript under review (invitation to revise and resubmit).
Shi, Y., & Oh, D. (2025). Uncertainty avoidance separates facial impressions at individual and cultural level. Manuscript in preparation.
Tan, S. K., Ding, X. P., & Oh, D. (2025). Concepts before faces: Developmental trajectory of conceptual and facial trait structures. Manuscript in preparation.
Key Publications:
Oh, D., Vartiainen, H., & Freeman, J. B. (in press). Racial stereotypes bias the neural representation of objects towards perceived weapons. Nature Communications.
Oh, D., Martin, J. D., & Freeman, J. B. (2022). Personality across world regions predicts variability in the structure of face impressions. Psychological Science, 33(8), 1240-1256.
Oh, D., Moner, F., Tan, N., Hong, R., & Teo, H. M. (2025). Self-other mirroring in personality structure. Manuscript under review (invitation to revise and resubmit).
Shi, Y., & Oh, D. (2025). Uncertainty avoidance separates facial impressions at individual and cultural level. Manuscript in preparation.
Tan, S. K., Ding, X. P., & Oh, D. (2025). Concepts before faces: Developmental trajectory of conceptual and facial trait structures. Manuscript in preparation.
Strategic Self-Presentation and Social Hierarchy
My research investigates how people strategically navigate evaluation contexts while revealing how social hierarchies constrain these efforts. Building on work showing clothing biases competence judgments, recent studies reveal striking impression management disparities: Black individuals and women choose professional attire more frequently even in non-evaluative contexts. Critically, we discovered that perceived partner status overrides conscious impression management goals in determining linguistic behavior—speakers automatically converge toward standard language with high-status partners and colloquial varieties with low-status partners, regardless of their strategic intentions. This demonstrates how social structural factors constrain individual agency more powerfully than previously recognized.
Key Publications:
Oh, D., Shafir, E., & Todorov, A. (2020). Economic status cues from clothes affect perceived competence from faces. Nature Human Behaviour, 4, 287-293.
Oh, D., Kim, M., & Moner, F. (2025). Economic status stereotype shapes clothing-based competence perceptions. Manuscript in preparation.
Ong, N. W. Y., & Oh, D. (2025). Status trumps strategy: Partner status perception overrides impression management in language-variety choice. Manuscript under review.
Key Publications:
Oh, D., Shafir, E., & Todorov, A. (2020). Economic status cues from clothes affect perceived competence from faces. Nature Human Behaviour, 4, 287-293.
Oh, D., Kim, M., & Moner, F. (2025). Economic status stereotype shapes clothing-based competence perceptions. Manuscript in preparation.
Ong, N. W. Y., & Oh, D. (2025). Status trumps strategy: Partner status perception overrides impression management in language-variety choice. Manuscript under review.
Human-AI Interaction and Digital Identity
My work addresses urgent challenges as organizations increasingly rely on AI-mediated interactions. We discovered humans achieve only 48-52% accuracy detecting AI-generated faces due to attentional misallocation to non-diagnostic features. However, targeted interventions redirecting attention improve detection to 74%. Using eye-tracking and neural networks, we're investigating how people form impressions of AI-generated versus real faces, with implications for hiring and trust in digital environments. This research addresses critical questions about authentication, trust, and fairness as AI transforms professional evaluation and social interaction.
Key Publications:
Mao, A., Cao, R., Sun, S., Wang, S., & Oh, D. (2025). Physiological encoding of social evaluation: Modeling eye-gaze, pupillary, and neuronal responses to faces. Manuscript under review (editor-invited full submission).
Mao, A., & Oh, D. (2025). Strategies for detecting AI-generated faces: Insights from human eye movements and deep learning algorithms. Manuscript in preparation.
Obando-Masís, R., Shen, L., & Oh, D. (2025). Social perception in the age of avatars: Modeling impressions across human and AI representations. Manuscript in preparation.