Culture Impacts Emotion Lab (CIEL)

Despite the fact that we all live and breathe under the same CIEL (French for sky), our diverse cultures impact how we experience the world around us. 

In our Culture Impacts Emotion Lab (CIEL), we aim to advance our understanding of the ways in which cultural factors (e.g., values, views of emotions, and engagement in cultural practices like meditation) shape people’s emotional lives. We are particularly interested in how views of emotions and attitudes towards crying impact (1) perceptions of and responses to others’ suffering (including racism), (2) conceptualizations of compassion, and (3) health and well-being. We use multiple methodologies and work on improving the analysis of data from frequently employed tasks (e.g., reverse correlation).  

Recent News

Birgit Koopmann-Holm was interviewed for SciFusion, a University of Michigan initiative that teaches people about science, society, and others’ experiences through stories, interviews, and the arts. A team created an engaging video about her work on cultural differences in compassion that is now listed as Episode 6 on SciFusion Shorts. 

Jack Tillman is the recipient of the 2026 Western Psychology Association Travel Scholarship Award. This prestigious award recognizes research of extremely high quality. Out of over 1,397 submissions, only 36 student awards were given—placing his abstract in the top 2.58%.