Cong Peng

Cong Peng
Postdoctoral Fellow of Psychology, NYU Shanghai
Email
cp3728@nyu.edu

Dr. Cong Peng is a Postdoctoral Fellow of Psychology at NYU Shanghai. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Manchester China Institute in the University of Manchester. He holds his M.S. and Ph.D. from Tilburg University and B.S. from Peking University. Dr. Cong Peng is interested in the function of emotions in social decision making. More specifically, he investigates how people give and receive favors or gifts and how such social exchange facilitates interpersonal and intergroup relationships through the distinct functions of gratitude and indebtedness.

Select Publications

  • Peng, C., Yam, P.P.C., Gries, P. H. (2025). The White gaze in racial stereotype research: sample bias and its consequences. British Journal of Social Psychology. 64, e12889. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12889.
  • Peng, C., Nelissen, R.M.A., Zeelenberg, M. (2025). Cash & care: when monetary gifts elicit gratitude. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 20, 475-484. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2024.2387354.
  • Peng, C., Nelissen, R.M.A., Zeelenberg, M. (2024). Emotional consequences of social debt sharing in communal relationships. Emotion, 24, 225-232. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001271.
  • Peng, C., Malafosse, C., Nelissen, R.M.A., Zeelenberg, M. (2020). Gratitude, indebtedness, and reciprocity: an extended replication of Bartlette & DeSteno (2006). Social Influence, 15, 4-16.http://doi.org/10.1080/15534510.2019.1710248.
  • Peng, C., Nelissen, R.M.A., Zeelenberg, M. (2018). Reconsidering the roles of gratitude and indebtedness in social exchange. Cognition & Emotion, 32, 760-772. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2017.1353484.

Education

  • PhD, Social Psychology
    Tilburg University, The Netherlands

  • MSc, Social and Behavioral Science (Track: Social Psychology)
    Tilburg University, The Netherlands

  • BSc, Psychology (Double major in Statistics) 
    ​Peking University, China

Research Interests

  • Emotion

  • Judgment and Decision Making

  • Social Exchange

  • Stereotype

  • Social/Political Psychology of China and the Global World