Psych-AID

Group picture of the workshop participants

Doctoral researcher Malin Ekelund, PI Jan Antfolk, and doctoral researcher Obed Appiah at the workshop.

Last week, our doctoral researchers Malin Ekelund and Obed Appiah, and PI @janantfolk.bsky.social took part in the (Re-)Constructing Credibility in Refugee Status Determination Workshop by @mobileucph.bsky.social. Thanks for having us!✨

Can’t wait for the upcoming special issue! 📖

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📣 Upcoming talk alert!

Our doctoral researcher Malin Ekelund will be delivering an insightful talk titled:🎙 “Adjudicating Asylum Claims of Sexual or Gender Minority Applicants”.

🗓️ Date: October 15
🕛 Time: 12:00–13:00 (EET)

🔗 Join here: aboakademi.zoom.us/j/6592539571...

We’re excited to have Anastasiia Valiavko join our team! 🎉 Please welcome Anastasiia, a doctoral researcher studying attitudes toward survivors of sexual violence in the Russia-Ukraine war. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us with questions or opportunities for collaboration!

📢 New pre-print alert by Malin Ekelund, Jenny Skrifvars, Hedayat Selim, and @janantfolk.bsky.social!

📑 The study explores how stereotypes and social perceptions shape credibility assessments in asylum cases involving sexual identity.

Link below!
🔗https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/acwp3_v1

Welcome Siyu Li to the Psych-AID team! 🎉 Siyu joins as a doctoral researcher, working on Avatar Training to help interviewers use better questions & supportive statements. Reach out for collabs!

📢 New paper alert by Hedayat Selim and colleagues!

📑 In Finnish asylum interviews with sexual minority applicants, most questions focused on sexual orientation over persecution risk. More open questions could support fairer decisions.

🔗 lnkd.in/gz-2wPaD

The Psych-AID team is growing! We are happy to welcome Dilhan Töredi as a new postdoctoral researcher in our team. Dilhan will be working on applying an innovative experimental lie paradigm where the ground truth of asylum claims is known.

Psych-AID team members at wine tasting

Psych-AID team members at pizza dinner.

Paintings at an art exhibitions inside a green house

Psych-AID team members sitting outside on a porch.

🍂 Psych-AID kicked off fall in the Turku archipelago! We welcomed our new members with a visit to Nauvoo—exploring Paratiisi (combined winery and art gallery), kayaking, and ending with pizza & board games. We are excited for the season ahead!

We are thrilled to bring back our Meet the Team series to introduce our newly recruited team members! Catharina Walldén has just joined the Psych-AID network as project manager. Aside from these responsibilities, Catharina is also a doctoral researcher in evolutionary psychology.

Some shots from Hedayat Selim's doctoral defence last month. Professor Hilary Evans Cameron (Toronto Metropolitan University) served as opponent, and Prof. @janantfolk.bsky.social as custos. Many congratulations to Dr Selim for this achievement!
🔗https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/193050

Doctoral Researcher Hedayat Selim will publicly defend her doctoral thesis entitled "Psychological aspects in the evaluation of asylum claims based on sexual orientation" this coming Friday, 22 August 2025.

More information below:
🔗 www.abo.fi/en/event/pub...

👉 Finally, the Educational Impact Award was presented to none other than Professor of Practice Julia Korkman, our co-investigator, for her work on the Åbo Akademi Specialization Course in Legal and Forensic Psychology.
Warmest congratulations to all the award recipients and their collaborators!

👉 Dr. Jenny Skrifvars received the Dissertation Award for her thesis, Investigating and Improving the Quality of Asylum Interviews and Decision-making Practices in Finland.

👉 Doctoral Researcher Obed Kwame Appiah earned third place in the Paper Presentation Award for his work on cognitive bias among asylum decision-makers.

We are incredibly proud of our Psych-AID team members for bringing home three awards from this year’s @eapl.bsky.social Annual Conference 2025 (Lithuania)!

Lastly, Doctoral Researcher Rasmus Ahlgren shared the findings from two studies which investigate asylum interviewers' and interpreters' perceptions regarding rapport building, and how attempts at building rapport are apparent in official Finnish asylum interview transcripts.

Next, Doctoral Researcher Malin Ekelund presented her experimental study investigating the hypothesis that asylum applicants claiming protection based on their sexual minority status are more likely to be granted asylum if they conform to appearance-based stereotypes.

Master's student and Research Assistant Anna Ilmoni then presented her thesis, a qualitative archival study investigating how intellectual disabilities are considered in decisions issued by the Swedish Migration Agency.

Juliana Raitis presented her master's thesis, which experimentally investigates whether asylum applicants' signs of being affluent influence their perceived credibility and need for international protection.

✨Psych-AID at the @eapl.bsky.social Annual Conference 2025 (Lithuania): Four members of the Psych-AID network had the opportunity to present their research on the psychology of asylum evaluations on day 2 of #EAPL2025.

Obed Kwame Appiah presented the findings from his recent survey study, in which 100+ asylum officials and appeal judges were asked to report their beliefs about cognitive bias and any strategies they undertake to prevent its influence on their asylum judgments.

Hedayat presented a theoretical paper entitled "Behind the 'Asylum Lottery': Sources of Cognitive Bias in Asylum Decision-Making", in which she reviews the relevant literature and maps factors that introduce bias in the asylum context, to propose preliminary bias counter-measures.

✨Psych-AID at @eapl.bsky.social in Vilnius: Participating in a panel on investigative psychology at hashtag#EAPL2025, our Doctoral Researchers Hedayat Selim and Obed Kwame Appiah each presented their recent studies on the influence of cognitive bias in the context of asylum decision-making.

After an amazing conference in Vilnius, congratulations to the EAPL 2025 Student Award winners!

🏆 First Prize: Milli Melodia Marika Leinonen
🥈 Second Prize: Weronika Bandarzewska
🥉 Third Prize: Obed Appiah

🖼 Best Poster: Md Yeasir Yunus @yeasiryunus.bsky.social

Details: eapl.eu/young-members/

Finally, Professor @anneliesvrede.bsky.social (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) shared important insights from a recent cross-cultural communication training tailored to investigative interviewing contexts, including asylum interviews, based on the "cultural humility" approach.

Dr Jenny Skrifvars presented a conceptual paper on the effectiveness of investigative interviewing principles in eliciting identity-based claims. Doctoral Researcher Maya Hertz (Uni. Copenhagen) then took the stage to present a study assessing how digital media is used in RSD.

Doctoral Researcher Md Yeasir Yunus (Uni. Portsmouth) presented a systematic review and meta-analysis on culture, memory and trauma in the asylum context. Dr Zoe Given Wilson (Royal Holloway Uni.) presented a project on asylum applicants' experiences of digital technology.

✨Psych-AID & collaborators at @eapl.bsky.social: On day 1 of #EAPL2025, our team members and partners participated in the symposium "Novel perspectives on interviewing and decision-making in the asylum context," co-chaired by Drs Jenny Skrifvars & Laura Stevens.

The workshop was also attended by our very own doctoral researchers, Malin Ekelund and Obed Kwame Appiah.

Together with Shumpei Haginoya (Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo), master's student and avatar expert Siyu Li (East China Normal University) led the session entitled "Avatar Training for Suspect Interviews: Training in a Deception Detection Technique."