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Leif Anderson, Lutsen, is the son of Steve and Jean Anderson. Leif was awarded a full scholarship to attend the University of Toronto. Photo courtesy of Leif Anderson
Leif Anderson is one of the nicest young men you could possibly meet. A 2019 graduate of Cook County High School Leif recently earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus in psychology. When he applied to universities for PhD programs three schools offered him full rides. I asked Leif some questions about his coming years of study, why he was embarking on such an ambitious route, and what he hopes to do in the future. The questions and answers are below.
Q- What is your major and what prompted you to pursue this major? Did you ever think of physics? That’s what your father got his PhD in right?
I graduated in May of 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (High Distinction, Summa Cum Laude), and a Bachelor of Science in Sociology of Law, Criminology & Justice (High Distinction). I graduated summa cum laude for my B.A. because I wrote my honors thesis on “The Pursuit of Empathy: Scoping Review of the Conceptualizations and Assessments of “Empathy” Used in Developmental Science Research.”
I never thought of going into physics, but I was at one point considering pursuing neuroscience and attending medical school. My father got his PhD in Aerospace Engineering, and he does some cool work with camera and laser systems that measure fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, combustion, and biolocomotion, but that has never really been an interest of mine. I have always been more interested in studying how we develop our identities (e.g., social, political, religious), how we act in different social contexts based on our expectations, and how we effortfully or subconsciously incorporate the perspectives of others into our own realities. I remember conducting some interviews with people during high school where I asked them how they developed their religious identities, and I was further inspired to research political divides after attending the page program at the Minnesota State Capital.
Q- You mother said you were offered three options (schools) to pursue your PhD and you chose Toronto. Eh, why did you choose the University of Toronto? How much is your scholarship worth (about).
A- Yeah, I was offered fully-funded PhD positions at the University of California – Davis, the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, and at the University of Toronto – Scarborough. I chose the University of Toronto primarily because of my supervisor, Dr. Andre Wang. Andre, who graduated from UC – Davis, also studies empathy (empathy being the broad ability to process the emotions and perspectives of others), and there are lots of amazing opportunities at U of T to conduct research with other professors studying interpersonal relationships. I also want to combine my social-personality interests with developmental research, which I will also be able to do at U of T.
I also chose U of T because I would be studying social-personality psychology vs. developmental psychology. When I was deciding which program to attend, I was thinking about how my future research will likely involve studying how people of different ages think of the capabilities of others (e.g., how adults over 35 rate the social competency of teenagers) and the ages at which we are more capable of incorporating the perspectives of others into how we interact with the world, and not necessarily study the social development of infants. So, I decided to pursue a social-personality program and then I will likely pursue post-doctoral research in developmental psychology to gain additional research skills.
My base funding is about $32,000, and then I also received the Connaught International Scholarship, which brings the total to $42,000 each year for 5 years.
Q- Explain what you are going to work on for the next 4-10 years? (Just kidding about the ten years).
It will be 5 to 6 years, which is close to 10 (haha).
Broadly, I describe my work as focusing on interpersonal relationships and empathic responding. How much does that tell you about my work? Not a whole lot. So, more specific projects that I will be starting this year include 1) continuing my supervisor’s work focusing on how if we evaluate someone who empathizes with someone that we don’t like negatively, will they trust the empathizer? 2) pursuing my own project that aims to understand how empathy is employed as a social strategy for different goals (e.g., finding out information, emotional manipulation, gaining votes/ campaign funds), and 3) studying how we come to believe that an opinion or belief is “reasonable.”
In the next few years, I will also want to delve into work addressing the incorporation of the perspectives of others into our own realities and generally what criteria we use to judge others as hypocritical, but I don’t know exactly what I will be working on beyond the next year or two (though I have plenty of directions in which I could go). Lots of the research that I will do will involve behavioral lab work, so I am excited to start developing experimental projects that go beyond reading through articles and reporting on the current state of research (though that will always be a part of my writing).
Q- Will you pursue teaching or some other line of work when you are finished with school?
A-The easy answer is to say that I am hoping to become a professor, but I am very open to other lines of work as well. One of my dream jobs would likely be working in a government or social policy role where I could study how moral judgements seep their way into how we negatively evaluate others and form in-groups, but I don’t yet know exactly where I will end up. As I progress with grad school and my research interests develop, I am sure that I will have a better idea of where I want to be in the next few years.
Q- Last, what do you do for fun? Still run? Take BWCAW trips? Eat chocolate and hop up and down on one foot?
This is a great question. My life is not just consumed by academics, though at certain times it often feels like it. For fun, I still love to run, bike, weight-lift, write down sci-fi novel ideas, take BWCAW and Quetico trips with my family, listen to music (primarily alternative or alt-rock), and play videogames. Though I love coming up with research ideas, it is always nice to have a day here and there to be absorbed by music, nature, or videogames while not thinking about my other responsibilities.
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