Chad Forbes

Chad E. Forbes, PhD, is an associate professor of social neuroscience in the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University. His research examines how the brain constructs the self under conditions of stress, bias, and social evaluation—and how these processes shape health, resilience, and performance across the lifespan. 

As a first-generation college student, Forbes earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology (with minors in biology and chemistry) from California State University, Long Beach, followed by master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology with emphases in social and cognitive neuroscience from the University of Arizona. He completed postdoctoral training in the Cognitive Neuroscience Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the National Institutes of Health. 

Forbes’ work bridges social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and health science to understand how social experiences—particularly bias, stigma, and evaluative stress—become biologically embedded. Leveraging electroencephalography, neuromodulation, psychophysiology, and computational modeling with large-scale data and artificial intelligence-oriented approaches, he investigates how memory systems, executive control networks, and stress physiology interact with culture and social context to influence identity, self-belief, and long-term health outcomes. 

His research examines both risk and resilience: how chronic social threat can alter neural network function and contribute to disparities in mental and physical health, and conversely, how adaptive cognitive and self-regulatory processes can buffer stress and promote well-being. This work integrates a biopsychosocial framework to explore how dynamic interactions between biology (e.g., functional brain networks, genetic polymorphisms, physiological stress responses), memory, and social networks shape vulnerability or protection in conditions ranging from traumatic brain injury to neurodegenerative disease. 

Forbes has received multiple federally funded research awards and has published extensively in leading scientific journals, including Annual Review of Neuroscience, Cerebral Cortex, and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He has been recognized as a “Rising Star” by the American Psychological Association and is an elected Fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology.