Category Archives: Lab Members

Dr. Van Cappellen Receives the 2026 Virginia Sexton Mentoring Award

Awards, Events, Lab Members

We are excited to announce that BABLab PI Dr. Patty Van Cappellen received the 2026 APA Division 36 Virginia Sexton Mentoring Award while attending the APA Annual Convention earlier this August! This award is offered to individuals who have contributed to the psychology of religion by mentoring individuals who themselves have become active in the field. Congratulations to Patty! We could not think of someone more deserving of this award.

APA Division 36 is the Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, which promotes psychological theory, research, and clinical practice to understand the significance of religion and spirituality in people’s lives and in the discipline of psychology. The Society is nonsectarian and welcomes psychologists and others from around the world interested in the psychology of religion and spirituality.

Important Announcement: The IBRC is Hiring!

Jobs, Lab Members

Dr. Van Cappellen is excited to announce that the Duke Interdisciplinary Behavioral Research Center, of which she is the director, is hiring a new Research Program Coordinator to lead center operations and support the Duke researchers that depend on us every day to help them conduct groundbreaking social and behavioral research.

The IBRC is Duke’s shared research resource for social and behavioral research, supporting researchers across multiple departments and career stages through research space, participant recruitment, and research support services.

This is not a typical pre-PhD lab manager position. We are looking for someone with a background in psychology or another social and behavioral science, experience supporting research, and an interest in research administration. The position is a permanent, full-time role that works closely with me to support the daily operations of the IBRC, participant recruitment, researcher support, communications, and administrative functions of the Center.

The start date is flexible (as early as September 1). Candidates should expect to relocate to North Carolina and work primarily in person (at least 4 days per week) on Duke’s campus. Dr. Van Cappellen will review applications on a rolling basis, with full consideration given to applications received by August 17.

Job posting:
https://careers.duke.edu/job-invite/272963/

Dr. Van Cappellen and Former Lab Post-Doc Kunalan Manokara Co-Chair APS Preconference on Empathy

Events, Lab Members

BABLab PI Patty Van Cappellen and former lab post-doc Dr. Kunalan Manokara co-chaired the full-day preconference, “Empathy: Approaches and Implications for a Divided World,” at the 2026 Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention in Barcelona, Spain.

Empathy: Approaches and Implications for a Divided World

Held on May 28, the preconference brought together more than 20 experts from different
disciplines and geographic regions. Through research presentations and posters, participants explored empathy’s role in early development, interpersonal relationships, and group dynamics, as well as the potential challenges and costs associated with empathic behavior across different contexts.

Patty also presented the keynote address, titled “For Better or Worse: The Role of Religion for Empathy and Intergroup Relations.”

The event was organized in partnership with The Love Consortium.

‘Science of Happiness’ Teaching Assistant Sophie Brooks Graduates With Distinction, Senior Project Features BABLab PI Dr. Patty Van Cappellen.

Awards, Lab Members, Student Opportunities

This past fall, Sophie Brooks served as a teaching assistant for BABLab PI Dr. Patty Van Cappellen’s course, The Science of Happiness, where she helped facilitate invigorating class discussions, community-building events among students, and offered overall support in executing the course. To learn more about The Science of Happiness course, check out this feature article by Duke Mag.

Throughout her time at Duke, Brooks pursued a self-designed Program II degree, Mind, Meaning, Movement: A Multidimensional Approach to Human Wellness, where she explored health and wellness through the disciplines of psychology, neuroscience, religion, philosophy, and movement practices.

For her senior project, Brooks designed a podcast, In Sync, to cultivate wellness through a curated collection of expert interviews. One of the episodes featured the BABLab’s very own Dr. Patty Van Cappellen, whom Brooks TA’d for last fall. Some highlights of the conversation include insights from Dr. Van Cappellen’s groundbreaking research in positive psychology, exploring how we can move beyond simply being “okay” to truly flourishing in life, among other topics. The episode is available in both Apple Podcasts and Spotify

Brooks graduated from Duke University with distinction in May following a successful project defense.

Congratulations to Sophie on all her success at Duke. The BABLab wishes you luck in all your future endeavors!

BABLab Post-Doc Megan Edwards Starting New Role as Assistant Professor at Texas A&M This Fall

Jobs, Lab Members

We are excited (and a bit sad) to announce that BABLab Post-Doc (and former lab manager!) Dr. Megan Edwards will be starting a new role as Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Texas A&M University this fall! She will be working specifically in the personality and social psychology area. There, she will continue her research on positive emotions and meaning in life. We in the BABLab are so proud to see how far Megan has come since she was a lab manager here, but we will miss her dearly! Congratulations Megan!

New Publication in the Journal of Positive Psychology by BABLab Post-Doc Megan Edwards!

Lab Members, Publications

We are proud to announce a new publication by BABLab Post-Doctoral Associate, Megan Edwards!

Edwards, M. E., Rose, H., Wang, I., King, L. A. (2026). The role of hope in supporting purpose following childhood adversity. The Journal of Positive Psychology. (in press)

In this paper, Megan and her team present evidence to suggest that, for those who were subjected to adverse experiences in childhood, hope is associated with greater levels of purpose. Purpose, or the feeling that one’s life has clear goals and direction, is one of the three core components of a meaningful life, alongside coherence (being able to make sense of one’s life) and significance (feeling that life matters). The findings presented in this paper suggest that the ability to keep a hopeful outlook on life may act as a protective factor against the harm of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

Congratulations to Megan and her co-authors!

From Coursework to the Lab: BABLab Post-Doc Kunalan Manokara Brings Students into Research

Events, Lab Members, Student Opportunities

This past semester, students enrolled in Dr. Kunalan Manokara’s course, offered through Duke University’s Pluralism, Free Inquiry, and Belonging initiative, stepped outside the traditional classroom and into the BABLab.

Students engaged in ongoing research exploring the utility of positive emotions as a tool for promoting positive intergroup relations, making the BABLab a site of hands-on learning.

 

The experience ended with a final project presentation, where students shared their research findings directly with Dr. Manokara and BABLab PI Dr. Patty Van Cappellen.

Students also received an informational tour of the lab space, gaining an inside look at the infrastructure, research questions, and collaborative environment that define a successful social science research lab.

Congrats to Kunalan’s students for completing their certification in pluralism, free inquiry, and belonging at Duke!

New Publication in Cognition and Emotion: How Beliefs About Positive Emotional Expressions Differ by Social Class

Lab Members, Publications

We are proud to announce a new publication by BABLab Post-Doctoral Associate, Kunalan Manokara!

Ye*, Z., Manokara*, K., Lamba, N., Sauter, D., & Sun, R. (2026). Beliefs about others’ positive emotional expressions: how they diverge by target social class, and why it matters. Cognition and Emotion, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2026.2626442

In this paper, Kunalan and his team (including his Master’s student, whom he shared first authorship* with!) investigated beliefs about others’ emotional expressions in relation to targets’ social class. They focused on two types of positive emotions: self-oriented (e.g. pride) and other-oriented (e.g. gratitude).

Across samples from four societies (UK, India, UAE, and the US), the authors found a strikingly consistent pattern of findings. While higher-class targets were believed as more likely to express self- oriented positive emotions (e.g., pride), lower-class targets were instead more likely thought to express other-oriented positive emotions (e.g., gratitude).

In follow-up experiments evaluating the social consequences of these emotion stereotypes, the authors demonstrated that people were less willing to associate with and work in teams with targets whose emotional expressions misaligned with their expectations (e.g., lower class people who show their pride, or higher class people who communicate their gratitude).

Taken together, these findings highlight the consistency of class-based emotion stereotypes and the behavioral intentions that stem from such beliefs.

This work was featured in the APS Presidential Roundtable 2025, where Kunalan was invited to share his findings. Congratulations!

BABLab Post-Doc Kunalan Manokara Chairs Positive Emotion Pre-Conference at the Society for Affective Science Annual Convention

Events, Lab Members
We are proud to share that our BABLab Postdoctoral Researcher, Kunalan Manokara, PhD, was invited to Chair the 2026 edition of the Positive Emotion Pre-Conference! This year’s event took place in Pittsburgh on the 12th of March!
Kunalan and his team put together an exciting schedule of invited talks and poster presentations, all aimed at showcasing cutting-edge research in the field of positive emotions. It was a day of insightful exchanges between scholars of all career stages, capped off with awards for emerging affective scientists working in this area.
Congratulations to Kunalan for successfully organizing his first pre-conference!

Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) 2026 Recap!

Events, Lab Members, Student Opportunities

Earlier this year, BABLab staff attended the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Convention 2026! We were so grateful to attend and present our research at the conference.

Here are some highlights from our team: 

BABLab PI Dr. Patty Van Cappellen and Post-Doctoral Associate in the
Dr. Megan Edwards of BABLab both presented at the “New Directions in Existential Psychology for the Religious and Nonreligious” symposium.

Dr. Van Capellen’s talk was titled ” Beyond Rainbows: Religious and Existential Dimensions of Hope.”
And Dr. Edwards’ talk was titled “Hope in the Dark: Hope More Strongly Predicts Meaning in Life Among Those Who Need It”

 

BABLab Lab Manager Jenna Faith McClear, M.T.S. & BABLab Lab Manager Camryn Yeager, B.A., both presented posters at the SPSP Main conference!

Camryn’s poster was titled “Campus Economic Inequality May Shape Feelings of ‘Falling Behind’ and Reduced Student Well-Being.”

Jenna’s Poster was titled “Immediate Emotional Benefits of Religious Service Attendance: Evidence From a Natural Experiment at Easter.”

Additionally, BABLab research assistant Jennifer Hu also presented her poster “What Makes Us Human?: Sociality as a Key Dimension of Mind Perception” at the first poster session of the main conference.

Finally, we were glad to catch up with all of the past BABLab alumni at the BABLab reunion dinner!

We had such an amazing time at SPSP ’26!