Social Connections & Technology LAB

📣 #EASP2026 Pre-Conference “Navigating Social (Dis)Connection: New Perspectives on Exclusion, Stigma, and Solitude” in Strasbourg 🇫🇷 (June 30)! 🎤 Share your research on exclusion, stigma, loneliness, solitude, or belonging! 🗓 Jan 5, 2026 info: …connectionpreconference.wordpress.com

✨ The new ConnectLab website is live! 
We’re excited to announce the launch of our new site with a fresh look, updated content, and everything you need to explore our projects and services. 
 👉 Check it out here: connectlab.psicologia.unimib.it

🎓✨ Day 5 The morning opened with the group project presentations, masterfully guided by Ilja Van Beest. The day continued with a session featuring Alessandra Sciutti and Emily Cross, both recipients of the prestigious ERC grants. Our week comes to a close. See you next time

🧠💻 DAY 4 | Designing Interventions for Digital Well-being Today we welcomed Maria Teresa Graffeo, Claudia Marino, Elisa Wegmann, Gianluca Esposito. The day focused on how to understand and address problematic social media use and emerging forms of technological addiction.

Day 3 | @dongning_ren helped us reflect on the importance of framing research questions clearly before even looking at data. Marco Ciapparelli and Davide Marengo explored the promises and limits of using generative AI tools for tasks such as idea generation and item construction.

Day 2 – What makes a robot feel social? Can machines spark empathy, trust—or even discomfort—through looks & movement? Today we explored anthropomorphism in social robotics with brilliant talks from Alessandra Sciutti, Nathan Caruana & Emily S. Cross.

📣 The Summer School has officially started! ☀️🎓 The first day was dedicated to “Connecting and Disconnecting through Digital Technologies”. A special thanks to our speakers: Ilja van Beest, Sarah Lutz, Marco Marinucci, and Francesca Cocchella.

🚨New Paper🚨 Together with Paolo Riva and Luca Pancani, we introduced a new experimental paradigm to study the impact of #Ghosting compared to direct #Rejection over time. Turns out rejection stings, but ghosting haunts! 🧵

On Monday we had the pleasure of hosting a well-attended and thought-provoking seminar by Adam Waytz (Northwestern University) at the Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca. Many thanks to everyone who attended his talk 'Humans and Machines', in person and online.

Adam Waytz’s seminar Humans & Machines will also be streamed live. Join us to hear how automation shapes human life. 📅 Mon, May 12, 2025 ⏰ 2:30 PM (CEST) 🔗 Link: tinyurl.com/c8zfetdm #SocialPsychology #HumanMachineInteraction #DigitalLife

Adam Waytz, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA – Humans and Machines 📅 Monday, May 12 at 2:30 PM
 📍Sala Lauree, Department of Psychology – U6/Agorà – @unimib If you're in Milan and interested in these topics, we look forward to seeing you!

Last call for the Summer School “Social Connections and Well-being in the Digital era”. 📝 The deadline for applications is April 27, 2025. To apply, fill out the online form available here: psicologiaunimib.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3O…

Great pleasure to host Ilja van Beest from Tilburg University at our department, with the talk "20 Years of Ball Tossing: What to Manipulate and What to Learn in Cyberball"! A fascinating talk and a great opportunity for our students and lab members to connect and exchange ideas!

We are pleased to welcome Ilja van Beest, Professor of Social Psychology at Tilburg University, for a seminar titled: "20 Years of Ball Tossing: What to Manipulate and What to Learn in Cyberball" 📅 Monday, April 7th 🕝 2:30 PM 📍 Room U6-01C – University of Milano-Bicocca

New paper alert! 🚨 How does prison impact well-being and behavior? How do social connections shape the prison experience? With @Marc0Marinucci, Paolo Riva & Luca Pancani from @ConnectLab16, we explore these questions in our new paper 📰 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/019735…

📍 We are pleased to announce the third edition of the summer school on Social Connections and Well-Being in the Digital Era. 📌 For more details on the program, the list of speakers, and logistics, visit the school’s homepage: cwde.lakecomoschool.org Registration is now open!

#Ghosting has become a popular buzzword, but what exactly is it? 💔👻 In our newly published paper, @JMSchokkenbroek, Luca Pancani, Paolo Riva, and I (@ConnectLab16) offer a theoretical analysis to clarify what ghosting is (and isn’t). Full-text #OA 👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.…

Our lab members @AlessiaTelari, @tere_trave, and Ilenia Gasparini traveled to Denver for @SPSPnews to present some of the work we've done over the past years! Talked about #AI, #technology, and #imprisonment in the context of social connection and social exclusion ❤️

Do you care if a robot is left aside? Apparently yes. In our latest @ConnectLab16 research on @GPIR_SAGE with @PagliaroStefano Manuel Teresi & Chiara Ballone, three preregistered studies show that people experience negative emotions when observing a robot being excluded

Check out our new paper on resisting #phubbing! 📱👫 #openaccess