Tech & Society Lab at NYU Stern
The Tech & Society Lab studies how rapidly changing technologies are reshaping childhood, education, mental health, and human flourishing — and translates that research into evidence, tools, and policy guidance.
Recent Research
Frequently Asked Questions
We study how digital technologies are reshaping childhood, education, mental health, and human flourishing. Our work focuses especially on children and adolescents and includes research on smartphones, social media, AI, educational technology, gaming, online gambling, and pornography.
The Tech & Society Lab is based at NYU Stern School of Business and is led by Jonathan Haidt, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership and Zach Rausch, Senior Research Scientist at NYU Stern. Our researchers conduct independent academic research on the effects of technology on individuals, families, schools, and society.
Yes. We conduct original empirical research, analyze existing datasets, develop surveys to evaluate policies and interventions, and synthesize evidence across academic studies.
You can find our academic publications, reports, evidence reviews, data analyses, and other research on our Publications page. We also publish public-facing work through Substack on After Babel.
Our goal is to understand, objectively, whether specific technologies improve human well-being or whether their design, use, or introduction into childhood creates meaningful risks. We are not anti-technology.
The Tech & Society Lab is independent from The TAG Movement (formerly The Anxious Generation Movement). The TAG Movement often draws on our research to inform its solutions and policy recommendations.
We work with researchers from a range of backgrounds, including psychology, economics, statistics, public policy, and related fields. To inquire about open positions or potential collaborations, please contact tech-society-lab@nyu.edu.
