NEW DIRECTIONS IN RESEARCH ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY 2026 CONFERENCE: AI AND THE FUTURE OF MEANING

Our tenth annual “New Directions in Research on the Psychology of Technology” conference will be held at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business on November 6-7, 2026. The theme will be “AI and the Future of Meaning”, focusing on how AI and other emerging technologies are reshaping what people find meaningful—and how tech can strengthen purpose, belonging, and agency.

CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS

• Juliana Schroeder, UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business

• Don Moore, UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business

• Nathanael Fast, USC Marshall School of Business

• Ravi Iyer, USC Marshall School of Business

Partners

• Center for Human-Compatible AI (with special thanks to J.P Gonzales and Sarah Otis)

• UC Berkeley's Institute for Personality and Social Psychology Research (with special thanks to Iris Mauss)

• Berkeley Culture Center and Innovation (with special thanks to Sameer Srivastava and Martha Gerhan)

• Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public (with special thanks to Jodi Halpern) 

Sponsors

• UC Berkeley Haas School of Business (with special thanks to Dean Jenny Chatman)

• USC Marshall Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making (with special thanks to Nate Fast, Ravi Iyer, and Parama Sigurdsen)

• Workday Foundation (with special thanks to Carrie Varoquiers)

• UC Berkeley School of Information (with special thanks to Diag Davenport)

Schedule

Please note that all the times indicated in the schedule are provided in Pacific Time.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2026

08:00am – 08:30am | Check-in & Breakfast

08:30am - 08:45am | Dean's Welcome

• Dean Jenny Chatman, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business

08:45am - 09:00am | Conference Overview & Organizers’ Welcome

• Don Moore and Juliana Schroeder (UC Berkeley Haas School of Business)

09:00am - 10:45am | Opening Speaker Session: Technology and the Transformation of Meaning

• 09:00am - 09:30am | Jeff Hancock (Harry & Norman Chandler Professor of Communication, Stanford University; Founding Director, Stanford Social Media)

• 09:30am - 10:00am | Barry Schwartz (Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Swarthmore College)

• 10:00am - 10:30am | TBA

• 10:30am - 10:45am | Discussion

  • Moderator: Juliana Schroeder  (Harold Furst Chair in Management Philosophy and Values, Berkeley Haas; Co-Director, Psychology of Technology Institute)

10:45am - 10:50am | Psych of Tech Research Spotlight: Open Benchmarking AI Models for Human Impact ("ImpactBench")

10:50am - 11:00am | Break

11:00am - 11:45am | Speaker Session: Regulating for Meaning—Preserving What Makes Us Human

• 11:00am - 11:15am | TBA

• 11:15am - 11:30am | David Evan Harris (Chancellor’s Public Scholar, UC Berkeley)

• 11:30am - 11:45am | Discussion

11:45am - 12:00pm | Keynote: Holding Technology Companies Accountable for Their Impact on Society

• Josh Lowenthal (California Member of the Assembly)

12:00pm - 12:30pm | Q&A with Assembly Member Josh Lowenthal

12:30pm - 01:30pm | Lunch

01:30pm - 02:10pm | Conversation: Embodied AI—When Intelligence Meets the Physical World

• Ken Goldberg (William S. Floyd Jr. Distinguished Chair in Engineering, UC Berkeley; Professor of IEOR, EECS, School of Information, and Art Practice)

• In conversation with: Malte Jung (Information Scientist, Cornell University)

02:10pm - 02:15pm | Psych of Tech Research Spotlight:The AI Indices (Youth and Adult)

02:15pm - 02:30pm | Break

02:30pm - 04:15pm | Speaker Session: AI and Society—Risks, Benefits, Responsibility

• 02:30pm - 03:00pm | Sara Johansen (Head of Mental Health Product Policy, OpenAI)

• 03:00pm - 03:30pm | Jenny Radesky (David G. Dickinson Collegiate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Michigan; Co-Medical Director, AAP Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health)

• 03:30pm - 04:00pm | TBA

• 04:00pm - 04:15pm | Discussion

  • Moderator: Nathanael Fast (Professor of Management and Organization, USC Marshall; Co-Director Psychology of Technology Institute; Director, USC Neely Center)

04:15pm - 05:15pm | Discussion Potluck: Bring Your Own Topics to Discuss!

05:15pm - 05:30pm | Day 1 Wrap-up

05:30pm - 06:30pm | Poster Session & Happy Hour

06:30pm - 08:30pm | Dinner

08:30pm - midnight | Post-Dinner Socializing

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2026

08:30am - 09:00am | Opening Keynote: Design for a Better World

• Don Norman (Founder, Don Norman Design Award, Humanity-Centered Design)

09:00am - 09:55am | Panel: Designing AI for Human Values

• Jodi Halpern (Professor of Bioethics, UC Berkeley; Co-Director, Berkeley’s Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public)

• Ryn Linthicum (Head of User Well-Being Policy, Anthropic)

• Amanda McCroskery (Applied AI Ethics & Governance Researcher, Google DeepMind)

  • Moderator: Pat Pataranutaporn (Assistant Professor, MIT Media Lab)

09:55am - 10:00am | Psych of Tech Research Spotlight: Survey Data Quality in the AI Age

10:00am - 10:10am | Break

10:10am - 11:55am | Speaker Session: Connection, Conflict, and Communication in the AI Age

• 10:10am - 10:40am | Pattie Maes (Germeshausen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab)

• 10:40am - 11:10am | Lena Slachmuijlder (Senior Advisor of Digital Peacebuilding, Search for Common Ground; Co-Chair, Council on Tech and Social Cohesion; Neely Senior Practitioner Fellow, USC Marshall Neely Center)

• 11:10am - 11:40am | Xuan Zhao (CEO & Co-Founder, Flourish Science; Research Scientist, Stanford University)

• 11:40am - 11:55am | Discussion

  • Moderator: Don Moore, UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business

11:55am - 12:00pm | Psych of Tech Research Spotlight: The Social Spectrum

12:00pm - 01:00pm | Lunch

01:00pm - 02:00pm | Datablitz & Discussion

• Dunigan Folk, University of British Columbia

• Ertuğrul Uysal, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences

• Grace Elizabeth Falgoust, Georgetown University

• Kibum Moon, Georgetown University

• Rafael Batista, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School

• Yuning Liu, Harvard Business School

02:00pm - 02:15pm | Break

02:15pm - 04:00pm | Concluding Speaker Session: The Social Mind in the Digital World

• 02:15pm - 02:45pm | Nicholas Epley (John Templeton Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science, Chicago Booth School of Business)

• 02:45pm - 03:15pm | Amit Goldenberg (Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School)

• 03:15pm - 03:45pm | Michael Inzlicht (Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto)

• 03:45pm - 04:00pm | Discussion

  • Moderator: Juliana Schroeder  (Harold Furst Chair in Management Philosophy and Values, Berkeley Haas; Co-Director, Psychology of Technology Institute)

04:00pm - 04:30pm | Conference Wrap-Up

04:30pm - 05:30pm | Concluding Happy Hour

Note: Details regarding an optional Saturday evening social event will be announced soon.