Shunan Zhang

Sungkyunkwan University, Huaqiao University

Papers

Total Citations

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About

Shunan Zhang is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction, cultural psychology, and artificial intelligence. Her work fundamentally explores how cultural contexts shape human perceptions of technology and how social cues from AI systems influence human behavior. Her most impactful contribution, "The Influence of Culture in Shaping Anthropomorphic Attitudes Towards Robots" (2024, 12 citations), provides a critical framework for understanding why individuals from different cultural backgrounds attribute human-like qualities to robots—a foundational insight for designing globally inclusive AI systems. Zhang further advances this field through her multilevel meta-analysis on AI-powered pedagogical agents (2025), which systematically quantifies how social cues in educational technologies affect learning outcomes. Her earlier work modeling individual differences in socioeconomic game playing (2012) demonstrates her versatility, using neurobiologically plausible neural agents in Hawk-Dove games to bridge game theory and cognitive modeling. By connecting cultural anthropology with computational neuroscience, Zhang is establishing herself as a leading voice in culturally-aware AI design, with her research increasingly cited by scholars developing adaptive, cross-cultural human-robot interaction systems.