Lee L
- Research Program Mentor

PhD at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

Expertise

empathy, prosocial behavior, social psychology, developmental psychology, persuasion and influence, leadership

Bio

Hi there! My name is Lee Lazar, and I have a PhD from UCLA in Social Psychology/Social Affective Neuroscience. I love using different methods within my research, such as neuroimaging and physiological measures, and am passionate about translating my research outside of academia. Most of my work focuses on studying prosocial behaviors -- what happens in our brains when we help someone else, how helping changes across adolescence, and how helping others can reduce our own stress response. I was also involved in a non-profit organization aimed at bridging the gap between academic scholars and storytellers in the entertainment industry. Through this, I was hired by entertainment organizations like Lionsgate Production Company and Creative Artists Agency to conduct research for them. I was also a user experience researcher at Google for the summer. When I'm not busy with work, I love exploring new hiking trails, going to coffee shops, making elaborate dinners, and hanging out at my local beach (which is just a short walk!)

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Blog Your Emotions!

Your project can be a blog post on how emotions change across the lifespan. This can start from when an individual is in utero to when they are of old age.

Graphic on Brain Development

A graphic on the most important aspect of an adolescent's life, and how to best support them during this major transition.

How to Best Create Content for Young People?

A tip sheet for content-creators on how to create content for children or adolescents.

Languages I know

Hebrew

Teaching experience

My teaching experience over the past few years has largely fit into 3 categories 1. Teaching Social Psychology to UCLA undergraduates 2. Teaching assistant to MBA students at UCLA's Anderson School of Business 3. One-on-one teaching/mentoring high school students in China via zoom

Credentials

Work experience

NICHD T32 Brain and Behavioral Development in Adolescence Program (2020 - 2022)

Trainee

Bedari Kindness Institute (2020 - 2022)

Fellow

Anderson School of Management (2020 - 2022)

Teaching Assistant

UCLA Psychology (2019 - 2019)

Teaching Assistant

Education

University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley)

BA Bachelor of Arts (2017)

Psychology (Minor in Disabilities Studies)

University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

MS Master of Science (2023)

Psychology