Dr David Cowan

I am a former lecturer in psychology at UQ. I am connected to the UQ School of Psychology as an Honorary Fellow / Lecturer.

My current research is primarily focused on the negative impact of social media on human behaviour and mental health.

More specifically, I am interested in how the content that we are exposed to, and the interactions we have on social media, may impact our empathy, overall emotional state, and our social media response behaviour.

I use several methods to research and measure emotional and empathic responses, including eye-tracking. Eye-tracking reveals the gaze patterns people use when looking at faces and interpreting facial expressions. This adds to our understanding of how the quality of face to face social interaction differs between individuals.

Unfortunately, I am not currently taking on Honours level, or PhD students.