Kristen A. Lindquist, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she directs the Carolina Affective Science Lab and the Social Psychology PhD program. She is also a faculty member in the Developmental Psychology Phd program and the Human Neuroimaging Group in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Biomedical Research Imaging Center and the Neurobiology Curriculum in the School of Medicine.

Kristen’s research has established evidence for a constructionist theory of emotion that explains how our emotions are both created by basic neural mechanisms and shaped by social and cultural contexts. To address questions about the nature of emotion, her research employs tools from social psychology, cognitive psychology, psychophysiology, neuroscience, linguistics, and cultural evolution. Her work is funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and private foundations.

Kristen received her A.B. in Psychology and English from Boston College in 2004 and her Ph.D. in Psychology from Boston College in 2010. She was a Harvard University Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative postdoctoral fellow from 2010-2012, during which she was affiliated with the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Kristen is the President of the Society for Affective Science, an international scholarly society focused on promoting innovative interdisciplinary research on emotion, moods, attitudes, decision-making, and other phenomena related to affect. She is currently an Associate Editor at the journal Emotion and was an inaugural Associate Editor at the journal Affective Science

is the recipient of multiple honors including being named a "Rising Star in Psychological Science" by the Association for Psychological Science, a Fellow of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. She has received multiple awards for both teaching and mentorship, including the Provost’s Johnstone Excellence in Teaching Award. She is currently

When not doing science, Kristen can be found spending time with her two daughters and husband, reading fiction, and being outdoors.