Irene Melani

Irene Melani is a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she works with Prof. Ying-yi Hong in the Culture Lab. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan under the supervision of Prof. Shinobu Kitayama. During her doctoral training, she was also a Visiting Scholar at Beijing Normal University, Nanyang Technological University, and Jamia Millia Islamia.

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Irene's research examines how cultural environments shape the psychological systems through which people understand themselves and navigate their social worlds. Combining social, cultural, and neuroscientific approaches, she investigates how distinct cultural contexts give rise to different forms of cognition, emotion, identity, and social behavior. A central theme of her work is uncovering psychological diversity beyond the initial focus on North America and East Asia, particularly across South and Southeast Asia. She is also interested in the social and psychological mechanisms that facilitate social coordination, cultural norm enforcement, and social monitoring, including how characteristics often assumed to carry psychological costs may serve adaptive functions in particular social and cultural contexts.

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At CUHK, Irene is interested in bringing these theoretical insights to the study of contemporary social issues and real-world societal change. Her current research examines how recent social and political changes may shape identity processes among Hong Kongers. As part of this work, she is developing novel approaches to assessing Hong Kongers' political identity and beliefs in sensitive sociopolitical contexts.​