Emily Falk, Ph.D.
- Professor of Communication, Psychology, and Marketing
Emily Falk studies behavior change, persuasion, and how ideas and behaviors spread.
Emily Falk is a Professor of Communication, Psychology, and Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania; Director of Penn's Communication Neuroscience Lab; and a Distinguished Fellow of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Falk is an expert in the science of behavior change. Her research uses tools from psychology, neuroscience, and communication to examine what makes messages persuasive, why and how ideas spread, and what makes people effective communicators.
Her research has been recognized by numerous awards, including early career awards from the International Communication Association, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology Attitudes Division, a Fulbright grant, the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society, a DARPA Young Faculty Award, and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. She was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science. She received her bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Brown University and her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Education
- B.A., Brown University
- M.A., University of California, Los Angeles
- Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Selected Publications
Courses
- COMM 310 The Communication Research Experience
- COMM 423 Communication and Social Influence Laboratory
- COMM 783 Describing Your Data
- COMM 811 Neurobiology Social Influence
Having a Strong Life Purpose Eases the Loneliness of COVID-19 Isolation
Those who felt their life was guided by meaningful values or goals were more willing to engage in COVID-19 protective behaviors.
Emily Falk on Video
Changing human behavior is a difficult thing — even when a person wants to change. Using the tools of neuroscience, Emily Falk studies how the brain reacts to messages and moments in our day-to-day lives, and what can be done to make behavior change stick.
Emily Falk talks about her lab's research showing that fMRI brain imaging in a small group could predict the success of a large-scale public health email campaign.