Niva Manchanda

Niva Manchanda
  • Graduate Student

Contact Info

Fraser Hall - Social Psychology Program
1415 Jayhawk Blvd
Lawrence, KS 66045

Personal Links

Biography —

I’m a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Social Psychology program, whose research examines how people navigate trust, uncertainty, and interaction dynamics with emerging technologies in the context of close relationships

Education —

M.A. in Social Psychology, University of Kansas, 2025
B.S. in Psychology (Hons.), University of California, Riverside, 2021, California
Honors

Research —

Lab: Gillath Relationships Lab
Advisor: Omri Gillath, Ph.D.

Selected Publications —

Gillath, O., Manchanda, N., Brumbaugh, C. C., McIntyre, K. P., & Mattingly, B. A. (2025). Attachment theory and the relational self. Self and Identity, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2025.2589769

Selected Presentations —

Ramirez, A., Mark, A., Zhang, Q., Manchanda, N., Gillath, O. (2026, April). Willingness to Form Relationships with Artificial Intelligence: the Role of Attitudes and Social Norms. Poster presented at the 29th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, Lawrence, KS.

Manchanda, N., Kandala, R. (2026, February). Matters of the Heart: Human Perceptions of LLM-Generated Romantic Advice. Poster presentation at the Computational Psychology Preconference, at the Society for Personality and Social Psychologists (SPSP). Chicago, IL.

Manchanda, N., Moharir, A. K., Sritharan, S. S., & Kandala, R. (2026, January). Evaluating Adaptive AI Support: Human Perceptions of LLM-Generated Relationship Advice. Poster Presentation at The 10th Linguistic and Cognitive Approaches to Dialog Agents Workshop (LaCATODA), AAAI 2026, Singapore.

Grants & Other Funded Activity —

Brehm Graduate Student Summer Fellowship ($2,500), July 2026
Wrightsman Summer Fellowship ($1,000), July 2026

Service —

Lab Manager- Gillath Lab (Jun. 2025 -Jun. 2027)
• Manage day-to-day research operations for a 15+ RAs per semester, including RA recruitment, onboarding, training, project assignments, participant scheduling, and study coordination.
• Coordinate multiple research projects and support data collection, coding, and quality control while facilitating weekly/biweekly lab meetings and communication across research teams.

Admission Application Review committee member (Dec. 2024 – Jan. 2025)
• Sent out application materials and addressed student emails
• Reviewed application for providing funding accordingly

Brehm Application Review committee member (Mar.-Apr. 2023; Mar.-Apr. 2024)
• Sent out application materials and addressed student emails
• Reviewed applications for providing funding accordingly

Memberships —

The National Academic Honor Society of Phi Beta Kappa (PBK), 2021-present