Dr. Elizabeth Dunn is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. Dunn conducts experimental research examining how time, money, and technology shape human happiness. She is the co-author of Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending (Simon & Schuster) with Dr. Michael Norton and she has given talks at TEDTalks, PopTech! and TEDx.

For all UBC students, faculty and staff, please email edunn@psych.ubc.ca

If you are contacting Dr. Dunn from outside UBC, please email profdunn@gmail.com

Dr. Dunn conducts experimental research on happiness, with a current focus on how to promote rewarding social interactions using technology. Her work has appeared in top journals, with three papers published in Science.

Dr. Dunn’s secondary research area is Health.

*Folk, D., Okabe-Miyamoto, K., Dunn, E. W, & Lyubomirsky, S. (2020). Did social connection decline during the first wave of COVID-19?: The role of extraversion. Collabra: Psychology, 6(1), 37. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.365 (Here)

*Whillans, A. V., Lee-Yoon, A.J., Dunn, E. W. (in press). Service provider salience: When guilt undermines consumer willingness to buy time. Collabra: Psychology. (Here)

Dunn, E. W., *Whillans, A. V., Norton, M. I., & *Aknin, L. B. (2020). Prosocial spending and buying time: Money as a tool for increasing subjective well-being. In B. Gawronski (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 61, pp. 67-126). Cambridge, MA: Elsevier.

Lok, I., & Dunn, E. W. (2020). Under what conditions does prosocial spending promote happiness?. Collabra: Psychology, 6, 5. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.254  (Here)

Aknin, L. B., Dunn, E. W., Proulx, J. D. E., Lok, I., & Norton, M. I. (2020). Does spending money on others promote happiness?: A registered replication report. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000191 (Here)

*Whillans, A., Macchia, L., & Dunn, E. W. (2019). Valuing time over money predicts happiness after a major life transition: A preregistered longitudinal study of graduating students. Science Advances, 5(9), 1-8. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aax2615 (Here)

*Kushlev, K., *Dywer, R. & Dunn, E. W. (2019). The Social Price of Constant Connectivity: Smartphones Impose Subtle Costs on Well-Being. Current Directions in Psychological Science. (Here) (Audio Reading)

• Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists (2015)
• Society for Personality and Social Psychology (2014 Fellow)
• Social Science and Humanities Research Council Impact Connection Award Finalist (2014 and 2015)
• Killam Faculty Research Fellowship (2011)
• Killam Faculty Research Prize (2010)
• Robert E. Knox Master Teaching Award (2010)
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Award (2010)
• Mind Gym Academic Prize Honouree (2007)
• Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies – Early Career Scholar (2007)
• Chronicle of Higher Education Rising Star (2004)

Dr. Dunn is currently accepting graduate students.