Elizabeth N. Trinh

Elizabeth’s research examines social connection and disconnection at work — the moments when people reach for connection and the moments when they retreat from it — and the psychological, relational, and technological forces that shape these dynamics. Although workplaces are fundamentally social, people routinely experience disconnection: conversations avoided, questions withheld, disclosures held back, relationships never formed, and ties strained or severed. Across her work, Elizabeth shows that these moments are not fixed; they depend on how people anticipate them, how they regulate their responses to them, and how interactions are structured.

Her research identifies three recurring patterns. First, people often misforecast socially connecting moments, overestimating their interpersonal costs and underestimating their rewards, and therefore avoid interactions that could have built connection. Second, people actively manage experiences of disconnection, developing strategies, such as self-imposed busyness, that help them navigate isolation and uncertainty at work. Third, small, scalable relational and technological interventions can transform disconnecting moments into opportunities for connection, well-being, and performance. To study these dynamics, Elizabeth draws on a multi-method toolkit including laboratory and online experiments, dyadic and group interaction studies, experience sampling, longitudinal qualitative work, and field experiments in organizational and gig settings. Her research has appeared or is forthcoming in outlets including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Emotion, and Academy of Management Annals. Her research has also been featured in leading global media outlets, including Harvard Business Review, TIME Magazine, NBC News, The Guardian, The Times of London, NPR, and SiriusXM Radio.