Dr. Orit Nafcha

In June 2024, Orit Nafcha started as a postdoctoral researcher in the Social Brain Sciences group.

She completed a bachelor's degree in psychology and philosophy at Tel-Hai College/Israel, a master's degree in social psychology at the University of Haifa/Israel, and a PhD in neuro-cognitive psychology at the University of Haifa as well. Her PhD research explored social influences on attention with human participants and the evolutionary origins of prosocial behavior and fairness with fish. In the past two years, Orit was a postdoctoral fellow at the Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU) at ETH Zurich, where she explored interoception of breathing and controllability.

Orit's research centers on social cognitive neuroscience, focusing on the evolutionary development and mechanisms of how we perceive, learn, and engage with others. In the Social Brain Sciences group, her research focuses on human-robot interactions. She investigates the unique factors and cognitive mechanisms that shape humans' willingness to accept and trust robots. Specifically, she examines how experiences in reciprocal relationships with robots influence co-representation, trust, and cooperation with robots, and how the sociality of robots promotes human prosociality.

In her free time, Orit enjoys writing and reading poems, hiking, baking cakes, and playing board games.