From Empathy to Acceptance
Alumna charts her own path studying emotions, relationships, and lifelong development
Whenever professor Claudia Haase saw Lillian Fu’s name on her calendar, she knew it would be a good day.
“Talking with her always felt like an opening of possibilities,” says Haase, a developmental psychologist and Fu’s mentor and research adviser. “Lillian is wise beyond her years. She has this deep curiosity and a genuine desire to understand emotions and relationships.”
Fu graduated in June with bachelor’s degrees in psychology and learning and organizational change, and she’s quick to credit Haase with shaping her path to research. It was the professor’s course on adult development and aging that sparked Fu’s interest in the world of emotions.
“She wanted us to propose our own project and learn in a hands-on way,” says Fu, who spent nearly four years working in Haase’s Life-Span Development Lab; SESP’s Center for Culture, Brain, Biology, and Learning; and the Chicago Consortium on Longevity. At all three, Fu learned how to capture and study the emotional and relationship dynamics that had long intrigued her.
Growing up in China and Australia, Fu developed a sensitivity to how cultural and developmental contexts shape interpersonal relationships. Relationship systems are complex, she says, involving interactions among multiple people’s unique experiences. “As I navigated different cultural environments, what helped me find a sense of belonging was the friendships that I built. I always make an effort to stay in touch with close friends from different chapters of life, even if we’re now spread out around the world.”
That global outlook also shapes how Fu views her academic work. Says Haase, “She’s super connected at the individual, personal level.”
Fu received three grants from the Office of Undergraduate Research to study emotions in close relationships and won the 2022 Fletcher Prize for Rising Undergraduate Research Star. (Haase also won a Fletcher Prize for Excellence in Research Mentorship.) Fu presented her research for three consecutive years at the Society for Affective Science conference—an uncommon feat for an undergraduate—and three times at the Northwestern Undergraduate Research Expo, twice winning best presentation in her panel.
In 2023 Fu launched her first independent project: studying how sadness and anger during relationship conflicts affect empathy. After months of tracking pairs of friends and romantic partners, she found that emotions influence how well individuals could empathize.
“When people felt angry or sad, they tended to be less able to show empathy toward their partner,” she says. “At the same time, those who experienced greater compassion were better able to read their partner’s emotions.”
More recently, she’s studied emotional acceptance—the idea that embracing emotions is more effective than judging them. In a larger lab project, participants wore body sensors while practicing emotion regulation strategies. Tracking physiological signals like heart rate and respiration, Fu found that those with more accepting attitudes showed patterns of relaxation. “Studying the physiological underpinnings of emotional acceptance could help uncover the physical health benefits of practicing acceptance,” she says.
Fu has also applied these ideas personally, when she’s anxious about the future or questioning whether she’s on the right path: “The idea of acceptance has been helpful—it’s a reminder that this is a stage of life when it’s normal to be figuring things out.”
For her senior thesis in psychology, Fu examined how words used in conversations—such as “yes,” “okay,” “no,” or “never”—reflect emotional tone. She’ll present her findings at a Gerontological Society of America symposium organized by Haase. This fall Fu began pursuing a doctorate
in health psychology at the University of California, Irvine, where she’s studying emotions and healthy aging with professor Susan Charles.
“Lillian is not only a brilliant, creative young scholar, but she has been excellently trained,” Charles says. “The combination of talent, drive, and a strong foundation is a gift to our lab."
--By Alina Dizik