Dr. Elena Tsankova

Dr. Elena Tsankova obtained her bachelor’s degree in Integrated Social and Cognitive Psychology in Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany, and her master’s degree in Neuro-Cognitive Psychology in Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. In 2013, she obtained doctoral degree in Psychology in Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany upon completion of her thesis in First impressions of reliability: the roles of object of impression, impression formation object and physical environment. Since 2020, Dr. Tsankova has been a researcher in Department of Psychology of the Institute for Population and Human Studies at Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Tsankova’s research interests are related to the formation of first impressions, internet behaviour, trust and reliability, emotions, and nonverbal communication.

            In 2019, she obtained funding for her project Meta accuracy of first impressions online from Peter Beron National Science Programme. Here is a brief summary of the project:

First impressions have strong influence on the person’s behaviour. A significant part of communication nowadays is done online and this gives special importance to the first impressions formed on the Internet. To improve communication and to avoid misunderstandings, it is worth exploring and understanding the first impressions that are created online. Through a bottom-up approach, the project will identify and explore in a series of experiments various factors that determine how well we understand the first impressions, which we create for ourselves online. The ultimate objective of the project is to introduce and establish cyber psychology as a new discipline in the Bulgarian academic world.