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Adelphi Researcher Secures NSF Grant to Advance Research in Social Decision-Making

Garden City, NY (04/24/2025) — Dominic Fareri, PhD, associate professor of psychology and director of the neuroscience program in Adelphi University's Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for a collaborative project entitled "Situational Learning and Decision Making." In collaboration with researchers at the University of Texas-Dallas and the University of Southern California, this grant will support Dr. Fareri's ongoing research into how individuals learn from and make decisions in complex social environments.

Being able to predict the behaviors of others is important to successfully navigating the social world, and prior research shows that understanding personality traits is key to this ability. Yet, less is known about how people weigh situational factors when making predictions about other people. This project will explore how individuals learn not only about others' personality traits, but also about the situations that inform people's actions and how these different types of information impact our judgments and the likelihood of social interaction.

Dr. Fareri is the site principal investigator for this research at Adelphi, which will provide the University's undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to work with behavioral data and computational modeling techniques, while also learning about advanced neuroimaging methods. This work has the potential to inform interventions in fields like education, mental health and organizational behavior.

"This grant represents a significant opportunity to explore the intricacies of social learning and decision-making," said Fareri. "By examining how people rely on situational relative to trait-level information in social interactions, we hope to contribute valuable insights to both psychological theory and societal applications."

The total intended amount of the three-year NSF grant across all three institutions, which commenced on April 15, 2025, is $650,304.

"Adelphi University remains committed to supporting cutting-edge research that addresses real-world challenges and enhances our understanding of human behavior," said Christopher Storm, PhD, provost and executive vice president. "This grant allows our faculty to take on important work that builds on our body of knowledge in psychology and neuroscience while also providing experiential learning opportunities for our students."

For more information about Fareri's research, visit The Fareri Lab at Adelphi University.

About Adelphi: A modern metropolitan university in the United States with a personalized approach to higher learning

Adelphi University, New York, US, is a highly awarded, internationally ranked and powerfully connected doctoral research university dedicated to transforming students' lives. It is recognized for small classes with world-class faculty, hands-on learning and innovative ways to support academic and career success. Adelphi offers exceptional liberal arts and sciences programs and professional training at the undergraduate and graduate level with particular strength in its 'Core Four' academic areas: the Arts and Humanities, STEM and Social Sciences, the Business and Education Professions, and Health and Wellness.

Recognized as a Best College by U.S. News & World Report, Adelphi is Long Island's oldest private coeducational university. It serves more than 7,250 students at its beautiful main campus in Garden City, New York-just 23 miles from New York City's cultural and internship opportunities-and at dynamic learning hubs in Brooklyn, the Hudson Valley and Suffolk County, as well as online.

More than 119,000 Adelphi graduates have gained the skills to thrive professionally as active, engaged citizens, making their mark on the University, their communities, and the world.

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Dominic Fareri, PhD, Adelphi University's associate professor of psychology and director of the neuroscience program, will lead collaborative study funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) on how understanding personality traits impacts the navigation of social situations.

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