Sarah CHAN Hian May | Research Fellow

Biography

Sarah Chan Hian May is a Research Fellow under the Chan Heng Chee Research Fellowship at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (LKYCIC). Sarah is an environmental psychologist who studies the interactions between people and their environments (natural, built, virtual, hybrid). Her research interests revolve around understanding the synergies and trade-offs between environmental sustainability, technological and urban development, and human well-being. Prior to joining LKYCIC, she was a post-doctoral research fellow in the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University, working in the area of computational social science. Her research has explored topics including the impacts of digital and urban nature, virtual reality and behavioral change, value orientations reflected by digital selves, emotions and climate change, and landscape perceptions.

She is supporting Harvey and team on the "Leveraging Shared Experience of Urban Heat and Bridging Spatial-Temporal Dissonance: Towards a Climate Resilient Citizenry in Singapore" project.

Education

• Ph.D., Interdisciplinary Graduate Programme, Nanyang Technological University (2022)
• B.A. (Hons) in Economics, Nanyang Technological University (2017)

Publications

• Chan, Sarah Hian May., Qiu, Lin., & Xie, Tian. (2023). Understanding experiences in metaverse: How virtual nature impacts affect, pro-environmental attitudes, and intention to engage with physical nature. Computers in Human Behavior, 149, Article 107926.
• Ng, Shu Tian., Leung, Angela Ka-yee., & Chan, Sarah Hian May. (2023). Through the lens of a naturalist: How learning about nature promotes nature connectedness via awe. Journal of Environmental Psychology, Advance online article, Article 102069.
• Chan, Sarah Hian May., Qiu, Lin., Esposito, Gianluca., Mai, Ky Phong., Tam, Kim-Pong., & Cui, Jian. (2021). Nature in virtual reality improves mood and reduces stress: evidence from young adults and senior citizens. Virtual Reality, Online First.
• Chan, Sarah Hian May., Qiu, Lin., Esposito, Gianluca., & Mai, Ky Phong. (2021). Vertical greenery buffers against stress: Evidence from psychophysiological responses in virtual reality. Landscape and Urban Planning, 213, Article 104127.
• Chen, Vivian Hsueh Hua., Chan, Sarah Hian May., & Tan, Yong Ching. (2021). Perspective-Taking in Virtual Reality and Reduction of Biases against Minorities. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 5(8), Article 42.
• Qiu, Lin., Chan, Sarah Hian May., Ito, Kenichi., & Sam, Joyce Yan Ting. (2021). Unemployment rate predicts anger in popular music lyrics: Evidence from top 10 songs in the United States and Germany from 1980 to 2017. Psychology of Popular Media, 10(2), 256-266.
• Qiu, Lin., Chan, Sarah Hian May., & Chan, David. (2017). Big data in social and psychological science: theoretical and methodological issues. Journal of Computational Social Sciences, 1, 59-66

Conference presentations/proceedings

• Suhaila, Zainal. Shah., Chng, Samuel., Chan, Sarah., & Neo, Harvey. (2024, May). Exploring Psychosocial Differences Underlying Divergent Public Priorities across Societal, Technological, Economical, Environmental, and Political Issues. Paper presented at the Association of Psychological Science 2024 Annual Convention.
• Chan, Sarah., Chng, Samuel. & Neo, Harvey. (2024, May). A Comprehensive Investigation of Psycho-Social Barriers to Environmentally Sustainable Heat Coping Action in the Tropics. Paper presented at the Association of Psychological Science 2024 Annual Convention.
• Chng, Samuel., Suhaila, Zainal. Shah., Chan, Sarah., Low, Weijian. & Chua, Breanne. (2024, May). Randomised Trial of a Gamified Inoculation Intervention to Reduce Susceptibility to Scams. Paper presented at the Association of Psychological Science 2024 Annual Convention.
• Chan, Sarah Hian May., Li, Yutong., Zhao, Yuqing., Fan, Ruoxi., & Qiu, Lin. (2023, Jul). Predicting dark triad and basic values from social media using machine learning. Paper presented at the 15th Biennial Asian Association of Social Psychology Conference, Hong Kong.
• Chan, Sarah Hian May., Qiu, Lin., & Yong, Jose. (2023, Feb). The impacts of mobile phone wallpapers on implicit connectedness with nature. Paper presented at the 2023 Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Convention, Atlanta, USA.
• Chan, Sarah Hian May., & Qiu, Lin. (2021, Feb). The effects of nature virtual backgrounds in video conferencing. Poster presented at the 2021 Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Convention (Virtual).
• Chan, Sarah Hian May., Esposito, Gianluca., Raghunath, Bindiya Lakshmi., & Qiu, Lin. (2019, Nov). Examining the effects of vertical greenery in buffering the negative psychological impacts of traffic noise. Paper presented at the 16th International Conference on Urban Health, Xiamen, China.
• Chan, Sarah Hian May., Raghunath, Bindiya Lakshmi., Esposito, Gianluca., & Qiu, Lin. (2019, Jul). Exposure to nature in virtual reality enhances mood and reduces stress: Evidence from an undergraduate and elderly sample. Paper presented at the 13th Biennial Asian Association of Social Psychology Conference, Taipei, Taiwan.
• Chen, Vivian Hsueh Hua., Chan, Sarah Hian May., & Alvarez, Katrina Paola. (2019, May). How perspective-taking mechanisms and viewpoints promote helping behavior. Poster presented at 69th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, Washington, USA.
• Chan, Sarah Hian May., Chew, Pei Ting Esther., & Qiu, Lin. (2018, Mar). Content in Music: Lyrics in Popular Songs Reflect the Public’s Sentiments Regarding Socio-Economic Indicators. Poster presented at the 2018 Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Convention, Atlanta, USA.