Hebel-Sela, S., Nir, N., Gruenwald, A., Hameiri, B., & Halperin, E. One size might not fit all: A Tailored Approach to Psychological Intergroup Interventions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
doi.org/10.1177/01461672261434701
About
I am a postdoctoral fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, where I work with Prof. Emily Falk and Prof. Yphtach Lelkes as part of the Penn-Kalaniyot Fellowship. I completed my PhD at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, supervised by Eran Halperin (Hebrew University) and Boaz Hameiri (Tel Aviv University).
My research centers on the role of group processes and media environments in misinformation and conspiracy belief. I study why group identity and intergroup conflict make people more susceptible to false narratives and conspiracy theories — and how media exposure interacts with these group-level dynamics to amplify or attenuate belief in misinformation. I have developed and tested a wide range of interventions targeting these processes — including virtual contact, self-affirmation campaigns, paradoxical thinking, tailored and personalized messaging, and AI-delivered approaches — across large-scale field experiments and intervention tournaments in real conflict contexts.
At Penn, I am developing a new line of research using belief network analysis to map the structure of beliefs in politically polarized domains — identifying which beliefs are most central and most amenable to change. I leverage these network maps to design targeted messages and interventions for high-stakes communication challenges including climate change, voting behavior, and science communication.
My research has appeared in journals including Communications Psychology, Political Psychology, Current Opinion in Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and is featured in edited volumes published by Routledge. I have been recognized with the Penn-Kalaniyot Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellowship (awarded; declined), the Halbert Postdoctoral Fellowship (awarded; declined), and the President's Scholarship for Outstanding PhD Students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.