The Gender Mosaic Lab
Alumni
Dr. Roi Jacobson
Doctoral Student
Dr. Roi Jacobson is an alumnus of the lab. He holds a B.A. in Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, and Public Policy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Tel Aviv University. In his MA thesis, under the supervision of Prof. Gary Diamond, he researched the relationships between gender-nonconforming behavior and anxiety responses in social situations among heterosexual and gay men. His PhD dissertation, under the supervision of Prof. Daphna Joel, examined gender identity, sexuality, and the complex relations between them across diverse populations, including heterosexual and LGB cisgender, transgender, and intersex-identified individuals. He also studied gender, sexuality, and quality of life in women with nonclassic congenital adrenal hyperplasia (NCCAH). Currently, Dr. Jacobson is a licensed clinical psychologist and clinical supervisor, practicing in both a public mental health clinic and in his private practice.
Dr. Zohar Berman
Doctoral Student
Dr. Zohar Berman is an alumnus of the lab. She is a graduate of the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students and holds an M.A. in Psychobiology and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Tel Aviv University. She completed her doctoral thesis under the supervision of Prof. Daphna Joel and Prof. Yaniv Assaf. In her Ph.D. dissertation, she studied the structural and functional brain alterations in female survivors of adult sexual assault, exploring how these neural characteristics associate with psychological outcomes like PTSD and post-assault psychosocial measures such as self-blame and social support. Dr. Berman then moved on to a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital under the supervision of Dr. Sharon Dekel, where she studied neural alterations associated with maternal postpartum PTSD. Following her postdoctoral research, Dr. Berman turned to the public arena, serving as a "Mimshak" Fellow at the Israeli Prime Minister's Office and as the director of the Israeli Climate Forum, established by the President of Israel. Currently, Dr. Berman leads university partnerships for Google Research.
Dr. Eliana Avitzour
Doctoral Student
Dr. Eliana Avitzour is an alumna of the lab. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Humanities from Tel Aviv University, an M.Sc. in Social and Cultural Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a Ph.D. in Psychology from Tel Aviv University, and completed postdoctoral training at New York University. Her doctoral research, conducted under the supervision of Prof. Daphna Joel and Prof. Victor Lavy, examined the psychological mechanisms underlying gender bias in STEM education, focusing on how implicit stereotypes influence teachers’ assessment of students’ mathematical abilities. Using a novel experimental paradigm, she demonstrated that implicit biases predict gender-biased grading and that evidence-based interventions can reduce such bias. Dr. Avitzour has held research positions at the Israeli Ministry of Education and the University of California, Berkeley. She currently serves as Director of Research in the Public Department at aChord, where she leads research that supports evidence-based interventions aimed at promoting more constructive intergroup relations, democratic resilience, and social cohesion in Israel.
Shiri Michealovich
MA Student
Shiri Michealovich completed her MA thesis under the supervision of Prof. Daphna Joel. In her M.A. thesis, she explored the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) as confederates for detecting implicit gender biases in conversation-based research. Specifically, her work addressed the challenge of AI "sycophancy"—the tendency of LLMs to over-agree, seek consensus, and avoid conflict. She noted that this behavior not only limits the confrontational dialogue necessary to reveal human biases, but also mirrors stereotypically "feminine" communication styles, which complicates the ability to randomly assign a gender to a chatbot in experimental settings. She successfully trained ChatGPT-4o and Claude-Sonnet to mitigate this conformity and adopt more varied, including assertive communication styles. Her research demonstrates the potential of LLMs to generate the types of conflictual dialogues essential for studying implicit gender biases in human-AI interactions. During her MA studies, Shiri established an interdisciplinary research group for early-career researchers working at the intersection of artificial intelligence and gender. The group held biweekly meetings and offered scholarships to its participants, with support from the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities. Shiri holds a BA in Film and Television and an MFA from the Honors Program in Digital Media at Tel Aviv University. For her MFA final project, Shiri developed an AI-powered, voice-driven interactive application that enabled teenage girls to explore and share stories about adolescence. The application was based on group interviews conducted with women and examined the potential of creating a collaborative database built on real-life experiences. She currently works as a research assistant at the Samueli Initiative for Responsible AI in Medicine on a qualitative study examining guidelines for the responsible integration of AI in mental healthcare, in collaboration with Shalvata Mental Health Center.
Noam Mizrahi
MA Student
Noam Mizrahi completed her MA thesis under the supervision of Prof. Daphna Joel. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and Gender Studies, and an M.A. in Psychology, both from Tel Aviv University. In her M.A. thesis, she applied qualitative methods to explore how individuals interpret and negotiate their own "Gender Mosaic". She described a novel psychological construct, tentatively termed "precarious binarity" – the fragility and active repair of the gender binary framework when threatened.
Adi Anner
MA Student
Adi Anner completed her MA thesis under the supervision of Prof. Daphna Joel. In her M.A. thesis, she studied gender differences in partner preferences, testing the competing predictions of evolutionary models (Sexual Strategies Theory) and social-role accounts (Social Role Theory).