Dr. Kubota’s research explores impression formation. She examines how we form impressions of individuals based on their characteristics (e.g., social status, emotion) or those who are different from us (e.g., A.I.); how those impressions influence our thoughts, feelings, and decisions; and how we may improve interactions (e.g., decision-making, teamwork). Her research crosses boundaries, bridging psychology, neuroscience, and decision-making by employing a multi-level approach. She investigates hormonal determinants (e.g., cortisol), neural activations (e.g., EEG, fMRI), computationally derived signals (e.g., prediction errors), behavioral outcomes (e.g., trust decisions), and change in real-world contexts, such as in organizational team, financial, educational, and social media contexts.                                                                                                                          

Dr. Kubota is an Associate Professor and Senior Ford Fellow in the Departments of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Political Science and International Relations at University of Delaware. She is currently a Director in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Prior to joining the faculty at University of Delaware she was an Assistant Professor at University of Chicago and received a joint PhD in Social Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2010. She then held a postdoctoral fellowship in social neuroscience at New York University and Harvard.                                                              

Her work has been published in various neuroscience and psychology journals, including Nature Neuroscience, Nature Human Behaviour, Neuroimage, Psychological Science, Perspectives in Psychological Science, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Biological Psychology, and Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience. Dr. Kubota was awarded a Senior Ford Fellowship in 2022 and is a fellow of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology. She is on the governing boards of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society and the SPARK Society. She is also a Chair of a Committee for the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society. She is also an Associate Editor at the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and an Editorial Board member at Scientific Reports. She has received funding from the Army Research Institute, MINERVA Institute, Ford Foundation, National Institute on Aging, and the National Science Foundation in support of her research.