Emory Infant and Child Lab

In August 2019, Shensheng Wang successfully defended his dissertation, earning his Ph.D. in Psychology from the Department of Psychology at Emory University. Born and raised in Tianjin, China, Shensheng received a B.S. in Psychology from Nankai University before joining the Emory Infant and Child Lab in the fall of 2012.

Shensheng is broadly interested in the cognitive processes underlying certain social and emotional phenomena. Under the supervision of Dr. Philippe Rochat, Shensheng conducted research on the uncanny valley hypothesis (Wang, Lilienfeld, & Rochat, 2015), and has been interested in examining the development of face animacy perception in infants' first years. In addition to uncanny valley and face perception, Shensheng's research focuses on the social emotion of Schadenfreude, which psychologists define as pleasure derived from others' misfortune.

Outside the lab, Shensheng was a tenor in the student choir of Nankai University, participating in both domestic (Great Hall of the People and National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing, China) and international (State Kremlin Palace, Moscow, Russia) performances, and competed in the first World Choir Championships in S. Korea during 2009-2010. Shensheng received martial arts training at 5 years of age and enjoys practicing Bajiquan in his spare time.

Reference
Wang, S., Lillienfeld, S.O. & Rochat, P. (2015). The Uncanny Valley: Existence and Explanations. Review of General Psychology, 19(4), 393-407.