Education
Ph.D. Stanford University, 2025
M.A. Stanford University, 2021
B.A. Stanford University, 2019
Areas of Research
Media psychology, media effects, communication technology, social cognition, intervention science, psychological well-being, community-engaged research
Research Impact
Assistant Professor Angela Lee’s research focuses on identifying pathways to help people obtain healthier relationships with technology, like social media, smartphones, personalized algorithms and AI. She takes a media psychological approach to examining the effects of communication technologies on individuals’ health, psychological well-being and access to information. This work starts from the recognition that people and communities experience technology in very different ways, to identify and understand the mechanisms that explain when, why and for whom technology helps or harms. In particular, Lee is interested in developing theory-based interventions that support people in obtaining the benefits of new technologies while being aware and resilient to its potential harms.
Lee uses a combination of mixed-methods including surveys, experiments, field experiments and natural language processing to understand how people from different communities interact with these emerging technologies. Community-engaged practices are also central to her work. Lee has partnered with community stakeholders including educators, clinicians, nonprofits and small companies to co-develop and evaluate interventions designed to support everyday people in making more informed decisions about how they engage with technology.
Lee’s work is organized around four goals:
- Understanding how people from different backgrounds perceive and interact with emerging communication technologies
- Identifying mechanisms that explain when, why, and for whom communication technologies are beneficial or harmful
- Working collaboratively with communities to develop and test effective interventions
- Translating research to support everyday people in having healthier relationships with technology
Recent Publications
2025. “Metaphors of AI indicate that people increasingly perceive AI as warm and human-like.” Nature Communications Psychology.
2025. “Americans overestimate how many social media users post harmful content.” PNAS Nexus.
2025. “Going light: The effects of minimal phone adoption on young adults’ well-being depend on motivation.” Proceedings of the ACM Conference for Computers & Human Interaction (CHI).
2024. “Social media mindsets: A new approach to understanding the effects of social media use on psychological well-being.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.
2024. “Building resilience to misinformation in communities of color: Results from two studies of tailored digital media literacy interventions.” New Media & Society.
Recent Awards and Honors
2022–2025: Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship.
2025: Best Paper Honorable Mention, Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
2025: Forbes 30 Under 30, Social Media.
2021: Stanford Graduate Public Service Fellowship.
2021: Stanford Social Impact Labs Ph.D. Fellowship.
Recent Grants
Stanford Social Impact Labs, Stage 2 Seed Grant
Stanford Asian American Research Center Seed Grant
Stanford Center for Human-Centered-AI, Responsive AI Equity and Education Grant
Stanford Social Impact Labs Grant
Stanford Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society Research Grant
Courses
J622: Impacts of Emerging Media
J823: Technology & Society