The 2025 Korean Psychological Association Conference (KINTEX)

Our lab participated in 2025 Annual Conference of the Korean Psychological Association held at KINTEX in Ilsan, Korea (August 21st ~ August 23rd, 2025).

Dr. Kwon presented her research at the symposium organized by Professor Sul.

Presentation title: “Amid Political Upheaval: The Moral Judgments and Political Choices of Liberals and Conservatives”

Junho and Taein participated in the poster presentation and received Emerging Psychologist Award (미래심리학자상) for their excellent research.

Poster title of Junho: “How Do Prosocial and Proself Groups Differ in Cooperation? The Role of Social Value Orientation in Differential Effects of Punishment and Reward”

Poster title of Taein: “Are Fair People Less Happy? Effects of Empathy and Subjective Status on the Relationship Between Social Preferences and Happiness”

Congratulation to Junho and Taein. We are so proud of them!

2025 PNU Future Talent Development Program Recipient: Woojin

Our lab member, Woojin, has been selected as a recipient of the 2025 PNU Future Talent Development Program (2025년도 PNU 미래인재양성사업), a prestigious grant offered by Pusan National University under the PNU-RENovation initiative to support outstanding young researchers.

Woojin’s project, “The Role of Partisanship and Attitude on Information Exposure and Political Behavior during Political Turmoil,” will analyze longitudinal data collected during major political events in Korea to explore how political identity shapes information exposure and political behaviors.

This achievement highlights our lab’s commitment to impactful research. Congratulations! :)

Link: https://psy.pusan.ac.kr/psy/15495/subview.do?enc=Zm5jdDF8QEB8JTJGYmJzJTJGcHN5JTJGMjc5MiUyRjE3MzkxNDYlMkZhcnRjbFZpZXcuZG8lM0ZiYnNPcGVuV3JkU2VxJTNEJTI2aXNWaWV3TWluZSUzRGZhbHNlJTI2c3JjaENvbHVtbiUzRCUyNnBhZ2UlM0QxJTI2c3JjaFdyZCUzRCUyNnJnc0JnbmRlU3RyJTNEJTI2YmJzQ2xTZXElM0QlMjZwYXNzd29yZCUzRCUyNnJnc0VuZGRlU3RyJTNEJTI2

The 2025 KSPPA conference (Korea University)

PSNL participated in the 2025 KSPPA conference (Korean Social and Personality Psychological Association), which was held in Korea University in Seoul, Korea (May 17th, 2025).

As the academic chair, professor Sul moderated the Special Lecture Session for Award Recipients.

Junho presented his research at the poster session and drew a lot of interests.

Poster title: “The Social Dominance Moudulates the Association between the Self and Other-regarding decisions”

A lab picnic

To celebrate the onset of spring, our lab members went on a spring retreat to Wondong, Yangsan.

The retreat was a refreshing break, helping us recharge energy for our academic steps.

An award: PNU’s SODA 2.0 interdisciplinary program.

Our lab member, Haein Yeo, participated in the “SODA 2.0 Interdisciplinary Education Program,” hosted by the College of Social Sciences at PNU.

As part of the program, she carried out a team project titled “Improving Accessibility of Urban Rail Transit for People with Disabilities in Busan.” The project focused on addressing social issues through data preprocessing, analysis, and visualization.

Her team received the Excellence Award (우수상), and we are proud of her achievement.

A public talk: The Neuroscience of Happiness

Brain Awareness Week (BAW), launched in 1992 by the Dana Foundation (U.S.), is a global campaign that is held annually during the third week of March in over 60 countries. It aims to promote public awareness of brain science and share insights from neuroscience with society.

As part of this global initiative, Inje University Haeundae Paik Hospital hosted a special event in collaboration with the Korean Society of Human Brain Mapping (KHBM).

Professor Sunhae Sul was invited to give a lecture on “The Neuroscience of Happiness” to local middle school students and community members.

Through her engaging talk, Professor Sul contributed to bridging the gap between neuroscience and the public, fostering greater interest in and awareness of brain science among the general audience.

2025 KSAH methodology workshop (Busan)

From February 19 to 20, 2025.

We held the KSAH Methodology workshop in Busan, South Korea, with the Yonsei Social Networks & Neuroscience Lab (YSNNL) and the Yonsei Biological Health Psychology Lab (YBHPL).

On the first day, Kiho Sung, a PhD candidate at YSNNL have introduced KSAH social network data and how to do ERGM (Exponential Random Graph Models) analysis using R.

Next, Professor Sungha Lee (PI of YBHPL) and Professor Kipoong Kim of Changwon National University introduced the KSAH genomic data and GWAS (Genome-Wide Association Study).

On the second day, Junho Bang from our lab introduced PsychoPy and Pavlovia.

Students and researchers from PNU and Yonsei University had a great opportunity to learn about various analytical methods.

A 2025 SSK Workshop (Busan)

On February 3rd, 2025, we held a workshop with researchers from PNU and UNIST, with whom we collaborating on the government-funded Social Science Korea (SSK) project, titled “Delineating the Mechanisms of Cognitive Bases Underlying the Exaggeration of Polarization and Social Conflicts in a Hyper-Connected Society.”

In the workshop, we shared our analyses on how political polarization influences cognitive processing, resource allocation, and social learning. Moreover, We discussed how cognitive differences resulting from political polarization can be explained by the structural characteristics of the brain.

Based on these discussions, we plan to strengthen our collaboration and expand our academic contributions through journal publications and conference presentations.

A year-end lab dinner

December 23rd

Our lab held its annual year-end dinner, reflecting on 2024 and celebrating our achievements. It was inspiring to see many of last year’s resolutions fulfilled.

We shared fun and memorable stories with Professor Sul.

We sincerely hope that, just like in 2024, all our members remain healthy and achieve their goals in 2025.

Paper published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

Prof. Sul and Won-Gyo published a new paper in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience !!

"Striatal-hippocampal functional connectivity contributes to real-life positive anticipatory experiences and subjective well-being"

Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsae096