I’m interested in understanding what drives human behavior in real-world ambiguous situations that are highly consequential for the individual. Possible factors are either personal, or situational factors. In my PhD, I approached this topic from the perspective of the “person”, trying to understand whether there are personal characteristics that predict greater susceptibility to environmental influences. However, I found that the effects of the environment are very context-specific, so it may be misleading to discuss broad personal characteristics as main causes for differential environmental effects. As a result, in my postdoctoral research, I chose to shift my focus to a specific context (or environment) that has important repercussions, that of ambivalent and ambiguous sexual interactions. I am interested in understanding how basic psychological processes are operating within sexual interactions and can lead to a negative experience. As a first step, I am studying whether and why we misinterpret social cues in high (sexual) arousal states. In the future I hope to also study when and why certain people knowingly decide to participate in sexual relations even though they don’t want to.
I completed my PhD in the Social Development Lab with Prof. Ariel Knafo-Noam at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and received the Wiener awards for an outstanding dissertation. I am currently working on my postdoctoral research with Dr. Anat Perry (the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab) and Dr. Tali Kleiman (the Social Cognition Lab) at the Hebrew University as well.
Selected recent publications:
- Markovitch, N., Kirkpatrick, R. M., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2021). Are Different Individuals Sensitive to Different Environments? Individual Differences in Sensitivity to the Effects of the Parent, Peer and School Environment on Externalizing Behavior and its Genetic and Environmental Etiology. Behavior Genetics, 51, 492–511. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-021-10075-7
- Markovitch, N., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2021). Sensitivity, but to Which Environment? Individual Differences in Sensitivity to Parents and Peers Show Domain-Specific Patterns and a Negative Genetic Correlation. Developmental Science, 00(e13136), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13136
Media coverage:
- Interview on my research as part of ”The best scientific discoveries of 2021” show on Galei Zahal (2021). Can be heard here.