Dr Ma is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Dr Ma received his MPhil and PhD in Psychology from City University of Hong Kong. Before joining PolyU, Dr Ma was a Lecturer and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at City University of Hong Kong.

Dr Ma’s work focuses on utilizing an interdisciplinary perspective to investigate human psychological and behavioural changes at both the individual and group levels to inform policy actions. He applies big-data approach, large-scale questionnaire survey and experimental manipulation, and seeks data-driven solutions and uses advanced statistical methods (e.g. multilevel analysis and time series analysis) to address research questions related to 1) cultures, health and diseases, 2) threat mitigation, 3) intergenerational transmission and parent influence, 4) individual and collective responses to socioecological changes, and 5) social perception and interpersonal relationship.

Dr Ma’s work has been published in peer-reviewed top psychology journals (e.g. Social Psychological and Personality Science, Computers in Human Behavior, Psychology & Health).