
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
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Emotion
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Empathy
Construct of Empathy (Affective Arousal, Affective Perspective Taking, Empathic Concern / Motivated Empathy)
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Facial Expression Recognition
Works
Search Professor David Cowan’s works on UQ eSpace
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
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
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
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
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.
Media
Enquiries
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