Nora H Prior

Living and learning about social relationships...

I am a Senior Research Associate in the Psychology Department at Cornell. 

My comparative research approach draws on my diverse background: spanning field ecology, organismal biology, behavioral neuroscience, and the psychology of perception. You can read more about my background here. 

I have always been driven to learn more about social relationships: my academic curiosity about the proximate mechanisms of social bonding has grown with my awareness and personal experiences with social and communicative diversity in people. At this point, my basic science research has become inseparable from my commitment to social justice advocacy.

Ultimately my goal is to change our understanding of how species and individual variation in sensory processing shapes diversity in prosocial behavior and social bonding. Our team works towards this goal by conducting integrative, innovative studies on novel questions. We accomplish innovation by supporting diverse research teams, reading and engaging with scientific approaches across disciplines, and considering the impacts of our identities on the questions we ask. 

I also recognize that the biggest impact we can have is by the questions we ask and the communities we build with along the way.  I prioritize broader impacts by 1) bringing awareness to the damage that cultural assumptions and biases in basic research has on our communities, 2) prioritizing mentoring and supporting diverse teams of students, and 3) partnering with social justice advocates, clinicians, and science communication professionals.