Dr. Ahra Ko is a social psychologist, working in the Evolution, Ecology, and Social Behavior Lab and Evolutionary Social Cognition (Kenrick - Neuberg - Becker) Lab with Dr. Steven L. Neuberg. She is interested in (a) how environments and cultures calibrate our goals and motivational priorities, (b) how our goals and motivational priorities calibrate the way we perceive opportunities and threats afforded by environments and cultures, and (c) how these, in turn, calibrate our social thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Her conceptual framework integrates an understanding of fundamental social motives with an affordance management approach to human psychology, in which people seek to identify and manage the opportunities and threats they encounter. Integrating these approaches provides a nuanced way of understanding a wide range of social phenomena, including the ways in which our motivations and environments interact to shape how we come to understand ourselves and others at cross-cultural, between-individual, and within-individual levels.
Ko is a graduate of Yonsei University, where she received both her MA and BA degrees. She also studied as an exchange student at the University of California, San Diego where she received Provost Honors in 2013.
Arizona State University
2017-2023
- Ph.D. in Psychology
- Advisor: Steven L. Neuberg
Yonsei University
2015 - 2017
- M.A. in Social and Personality Psychology
- Personality and Social Psychology Lab
- Advisor: Eunkook Mark Suh
University of California, San Diego
2013
- Exchange Student
- Psychology and Cognitive Science
- Provost Honors
Yonsei University
2011 - 2015
- B.A. in Psychology and Cognitive Science
Dr. Ahra is interested in (a) how environments and cultures calibrate our goals and motivational priorities, (b) how our goals and motivational priorities calibrate the way we perceive opportunities and threats afforded by environments and cultures, and (c) how these, in turn, calibrate our social thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Her conceptual framework integrates an understanding of fundamental social motives with an affordance management approach to human psychology, in which people seek to identify and manage the opportunities and threats they encounter. Integrating these approaches provides a nuanced way of understanding a wide range of social phenomena, including the ways in which our motivations and environments interact to shape how we come to understand ourselves and others at cross-cultural, between-individual, and within-individual levels.
Ko, A., Neuberg, S. L., Pick, C. M., Varnum, M. E. W., & Becker, D. V. (2024). Responses to political partisans are shaped by a COVID-sensitive disease avoidance psychology: A longitudinal investigation of functional flexibility. American Psychologist. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0001318
Kirsch, A., Kenrick, D. T., Ko, A., Pick, C. M., & Varnum, M. E. W. (2024). Sibling aggression is surprisingly common and sexually egalitarian. Evolution and Human Behavior, 45(2), 214-227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.03.001
Ko, A., Bock, J. E., Ko, J., & Krems, J. A. (2023). Contagious or prosocial? Perceptions of mask-wearers toward Whites and Asians: A cross-cultural comparison during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 17(11), e12880. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12880
Ko, A., Suh, E. M., Shin, J., & Neuberg, S. L. (2023). Functionally calibrating life satisfaction: The case of mating motives and self-perceived mate value. Journal of Happiness Studies, 24(2), 651-675. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00615-1
Pick, C. M., Ko, A., Wormley, A. S., Wiezel, A., Kenrick, D. T., … & Varnum, M. E. W. (2022). Family still matters: Human social motivation during a global pandemic. Evolution and Human Behavior, 43(6), 527-535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.09.003
Pick, C. M., Ko, A., Kenrick, D. T., … & Varnum, M. E. W. (2022). Fundamental social motives measured across forty-two cultures in two waves. Scientific Data, 9(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01579-w
Barlev, M., Ko, A., Krems, J. A., & Neuberg, S. L. (2022). Weight Location Moderates Weight-Based Self-Devaluation and Perceived Social Devaluation in Women. Social Psychological and Personality Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211060724
Krems, J. A., Ko, A., Moon, J. W., & Varnum, M. E. (2021). Lay beliefs about gender and sexual behavior: First evidence for a pervasive, robust (but seemingly unfounded) stereotype. Psychological Science, 32(6), 871-889. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620983829
Ko, A., Pick, C. M., Kwon, J., Barlev, M., Krems, J. A., Varnum, M. E., ... & Kenrick, D. T. (2020). Family matters: Rethinking the psychology of human social motivation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(1), 173-201. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619872986
Ko, A., & Suh, E. M. (2019). Does physical attractiveness buy happiness? Women’s mating motivation and happiness. Motivation and Emotion, 43(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9717-z
Becker, D. V., Rheem, H., Pick, C. M., Ko, A., & Lafko, S. R. (2019). Angry faces hold attention: Evidence of attentional adhesion in two paradigms. Progress in brain research, 247, 89-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2019.03.033