Jon Freeman (academic)

Freeman received his BA from New York University in 2007, where he first studied social psychology.[1] He earned his PhD at Tufts University in 2012, where he worked with Nalini Ambady.

After his doctorate, Freeman joined the faculty of Dartmouth College as an Assistant Professor.[2][3] He moved to New York University as an Assistant Professor in 2014, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018, and moved to Columbia University as an Associate Professor in 2022.[4][5] He directs the Social Cognitive and Neural Sciences Lab.[6] His research combines behavioural paradigms with computational modelling and human neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging.[1]

Freeman investigates how we form social judgments and first impressions. In particular, his work has shown that, because facial cues are often complex and ambiguous, multiple “partial” perceptions must initially compete over fractions of a second. This dynamic competition is argued to be central to the ability to form social judgments.[4] He proposed a theoretical framework known as the "dynamic interactive model" that posits flexible interplay between social cognition and visual perception, and his work has shown that stereotypes and other kinds of social or emotional knowledge can affect visual processing.[7][8] An example is how stereotypes become expectations that impact visual prototypes and create distortions in how faces are perceived.[9] His research has demonstrated that tacit assumptions about social groups, emotions, or personality can all influence the way we visually perceive and internally represent others' faces.[10][11][12][13] These effects are thought to be driven by specific interactions between the fusiform gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, and anterior temporal lobe.[7][14]

Freeman studies several other topics in social neuroscience related to social cognition, emotion, and decision-making.[6] For instance, he has examined mechanisms underlying the acquisition and reversal of unconscious bias, the brain's response to facial expressions or a person's trustworthiness outside conscious awareness, and the impact of split-second judgments on real-world outcomes.[14][15][16][17][18]

Freeman developed MouseTracker, a software that tracks decision-making in the brain over hundreds of milliseconds by analysing the trajectory of a human subject's response-directed hand movement via a mouse cursor.[19] It allows researchers to assess real-time processing in cognitive tasks.[20] MouseTracker is used by over 3,000 researchers in several different disciplines.[21] Freeman's work has helped establish and popularise the mouse-tracking technique in cognitive science.[22][23][24]

Freeman is on the editorial board of Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.[25] He previously served as an Associate Editor of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.