Franki Y. H. Kung
Papers
2
Total Citations
18
H-Index
2
About
Franki Y. H. Kung is a social and personality psychologist whose research sits at the compelling intersection of self-control, humanization, and social perception. Kung's most notable work challenges conventional wisdom about self-discipline by revealing a paradoxical social cost: people who demonstrate high self-control are perceived as more robotic and less fully human. This insight, captured in the widely discussed paper "Determined Yet Dehumanized" (2022), argues that because desire and vulnerability to temptation are considered quintessentially human traits, individuals who masterfully resist such desires inadvertently signal a machine-like quality to observers. With 15 citations and growing scholarly attention, this work has opened important conversations about how virtues can simultaneously attract admiration and trigger dehumanization. Kung's research speaks directly to broader questions about what it means to be human in an era increasingly defined by automation and artificial intelligence, making the findings particularly timely and thought-provoking. By bridging moral psychology, social cognition, and humanization research, Kung offers students and researchers a fresh lens through which to understand how everyday behaviors shape the way we perceive — and sometimes diminish — one another's humanity.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2