Alisa Bedrov

Graduate Student

Advisor

Research Area

Social Psychology

Biography

Alisa Bedrov received her B.A. in Psychology and Russian from Duke University. She began her graduate studies at UCSB in 2019 working with Dr. Shelly Gable in the EMBeR Lab. As a high school student, she hated anything that had to do with statistics, which is ironic given how much she enjoys analyzing her data now (and is pursuing a career that relies so heavily on statistics).

Research

My research focuses on how people keep and share secrets with close others, and more specifically how the unique relationship context in which a secret exists has effects at the individual, dyadic, and group levels. To that effect, I am interested in how secrets are used to create interpersonal closeness, demonstrate social value, and make inferences about a given relationship, as well as the potential downsides of secrets being detrimental to personal and/or relational well-being. My research questions cover both personal secrets about the self and secondhand secrets about other people (similar to gossip). I am also interested in other aspects of close relationships, such as interpersonal emotion regulation, authenticity, and how we come to accurately perceive and understand close others.

[secrets, trust, close relationships, social networks]