Samuel Dias
Profile
What helps people feel connected to each other, their communities, and the spaces they share? I explore this question in my psychology research at the University of Toronto Mississauga, drawing on relationship science, art-based interventions, and prosocial emotions. With a background in art, architecture, and communications, I translate research into material that is inspiring, accessible, and, most of all, useful: knowledge people can apply in their own lives.
Selected work
The Shape of Support
What makes support feel effective in a relationship, and how does that change when one partner is neurodivergent? This study explores how communication unfolds in these couples. We sought to understand whether partners’ needs for autonomy, competence, and closeness were met, and what helped make that possible. Comparing how partners listened, communicated, and offered touch, we found the strongest predictor was feeling that one’s partner took their perspective and made an effort to understand them.
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The Pod Experiment
When it comes to dating, many people see their type as fixed, as if attraction were set in stone early in life and never changed. This study examines whether believing attraction can change makes people more open to considering different partners. Participants are primed with one of two framings: attraction is either fixed or shaped by experience. They then interact with a fictional dating app, allowing us to compare how each framing influences their preferences.
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