During this past summer, our lab gathered for a BBQ to celebrate the end of the Academic Year 2023/2024. It was a relaxing and joyful moment where we came together to celebrate the hard work and progress that everyone has accomplished in the past year. During the gathering, we shared great food and stories. Many thanks to Charlie for organising the BBQ, and to Reiner and Charlie for grilling the food. We hope everybody enjoyed the company and the meal, and feel ready for the upcoming year!

Congratulations to Reiner Ng Wei Jie on passing his PhD oral defense! Reiner’s PhD thesis is entitled “What changes the trust for conflicting information: The influence of affect-cognition and subjective ambivalence”, and he examined how affect-cognition matching can increase the extent of subjective ambivalence to consequently reduce the amount of trust that is given to conflicting content. This work offers insights into how subjective ambivalence can explain the decline in trust when people encounter conflicting information – a scenario that is increasingly prevalent in today's media landscape. The findings have practical implications on how practitioners may strategically create content that minimises subjective ambivalence to enhance the trustworthiness of their conflicting but accurate content. We wish Reiner all the best!

Congratulations to Gabriel Goh on passing his PhD oral defense! In Gabriel's PhD thesis "Horizontal-Verticality in Ingroup and Outgroup Derogation: An Integrative Cultural Perspective of the Black Sheep and Ingroup Leniency Effects", he examined how horizontal and vertical cultural orientations shape reactions to deviant behavior within and between groups. This research has implications for understanding cultural variations in social identity processes, intergroup relations, and responses to norm violations at both the ecological and individual levels of analysis. We wish Gabriel all the best!