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Dr David Cowan
Dr

David Cowan

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Overview

Background

I am a former lecturer in psychology at UQ. I am connected to the UQ School of Psychology as an Honorary Fellow / Lecturer.

My current research is primarily focused on the negative impact of social media on human behaviour and mental health.

More specifically, I am interested in how the content that we are exposed to, and the interactions we have on social media, may impact our empathy, overall emotional state, and our social media response behaviour.

I use several methods to research and measure emotional and empathic responses, including eye-tracking. Eye-tracking reveals the gaze patterns people use when looking at faces and interpreting facial expressions. This adds to our understanding of how the quality of face to face social interaction differs between individuals.

Unfortunately, I am not currently taking on Honours level, or PhD students.

Availability

Dr David Cowan is:
Not available for supervision

Fields of research

Qualifications

  • Bachelor (Honours) of Psychological Science, The University of Queensland
  • Doctor of Philosophy of Psychology, The University of Queensland
  • Member, Australian Psychological Society, Australian Psychological Society

Research interests

  • Emotion

  • Empathy

    Construct of Empathy (Affective Arousal, Affective Perspective Taking, Empathic Concern / Motivated Empathy)

  • Facial Expression Recognition

Works

Search Professor David Cowan’s works on UQ eSpace

5 works between 2010 and 2021

1 - 5 of 5 works

2021

Journal Article

The socially dominant troll: acceptance attitudes towards trolling

Bentley, Laura A. and Cowan, David G. (2021). The socially dominant troll: acceptance attitudes towards trolling. Personality and Individual Differences, 173 110628, 110628. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.110628

The socially dominant troll: acceptance attitudes towards trolling

2015

Other Outputs

The empathic gaze and how to find it: eye-gaze behaviour to expressions of emotion

Cowan, David Gary (2015). The empathic gaze and how to find it: eye-gaze behaviour to expressions of emotion. PhD Thesis, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/uql.2015.843

The empathic gaze and how to find it: eye-gaze behaviour to expressions of emotion

2015

Journal Article

Recent trends in testing social cognition

Henry, Julie D., Cowan, David G., Lee, Teresa and Sachdev, Perminder S. (2015). Recent trends in testing social cognition. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 28 (2), 133-140. doi: 10.1097/YCO.0000000000000139

Recent trends in testing social cognition

2014

Journal Article

Motivated empathy: the mechanics of the empathic gaze

Cowan, David G., Vanman, Eric J. and Nielsen, Mark (2014). Motivated empathy: the mechanics of the empathic gaze. Cognition and Emotion, 28 (8), 1522-1530. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2014.890563

Motivated empathy: the mechanics of the empathic gaze

2010

Other Outputs

The face interference effect: A new perspective on the automaticity of holistic face processing

Cowan, David (2010). The face interference effect: A new perspective on the automaticity of holistic face processing. Honours Thesis, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland.

The face interference effect: A new perspective on the automaticity of holistic face processing

Media

Enquiries

For media enquiries about Dr David Cowan's areas of expertise, story ideas and help finding experts, contact our Media team:

communications@uq.edu.au