2025 – present
Associate director of the LID. Leading the R&D strategy and managing research projects at the Interdisciplinary Laboratory on the Doctorate (LID). Directing a team of nine researchers, research assistants, and valorization officers, including preparing proposals for calls for projects and tenders.

2021
Researcher at the Laboratory of Interdisciplinary Studies on the Doctorate (LID), Adoc Talent Management. My research focuses on two key areas: (1) the relationship between doctoral education and responses to workplace demands, and (2) the self-perception of PhD graduates and its impact.

2020 – 2021
Postdoctoral Researcher at the Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale : Contextes et Régulation (EA 4471), Université de Paris. Project title: Determining factors in protection motivation : applied studies to populations with high-risk exposure.

2016 – 2020
PhD candidate. Doctorate conducted in collaboration with Crédit Agricole Assurances – Pacifica and the Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale : Contextes et Régulation of Université de Paris. Title: Affective, physiological and motivational properties of exposition to inconsistencies.

I investigate the self-perceptions of PhD candidates and explore the impact of these perceptions on their experiences and motivation. My research is rooted in the fields of social psychology, examining work demands, career planning, stereotypes and social identity.

For research personals (researchers, PhD candidates…):
– Discover and access R&D in the private sector in France
– Discover and access academic research in France
– How to manage your scientific project
– How to manage a team of scientists
– Follow your skill development

1. Bran, A., & Lopes, N. (2025). Stereotypes and biases in recruiting PhD holders: a professional profile experiment. Higher Education Research & Development, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2462021

2. Tõnismann, T., & Bran, A. (2025). Rationalité des transitions postdoctorales: conflits entre les représentations, ressources, et vécus des doctorants et des titulaires de doctorat. Revue internationale de pédagogie de l’enseignement supérieur, 41, (1).

3. Bran, A., Lopes, N., & Lafon, M. (2024). PhD graduates’ appraisals of work demands: challenging, hindering, and not very threatening. Studies in Higher Education, 49(3), 559-575. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075079.2023.2244963

4. Dorison, C., Lerner, J. S., Heller, B. H., Rothman, A., Kawachi, I. I., Wang, K.,  Bran, A., & Coles, N. A. (2022). In COVID-19 health messaging, loss framing increases anxiety with little-to-no concomitant benefits: Experimental evidence from 84 countries. Affective Science.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-022-00128-3

5. Bran, A., & Vaidis, D. C. (2022). Nouveaux Horizons sur la Dissonance Cognitive: Développements Récents, Modèles Intégratifs et Pistes de Recherche. L’Année psychologique, 1(122), 149-183. https://doi.org/10.3917/anpsy1.221.0149

6. Legate, N., Ngyuen, T. V., Weinstein, N., Moller, A., Legault, L., Vally, Z., … Bran, A., & Ogbonnaya, C. E. (2022). A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(22).
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2111091119

7. Bran, A. (2021). Rédiger un Message de Prévention : Principes pour améliorer l’efficacité et réduire les effets contre-productifs. In-Mind FR, 1. Accessible à l’adresse : https://fr.in-mind.org/fr/article/rediger-un-message-de-prevention-principes-pour-ameliorer-lefficacite-et-reduire-les-effets

8. Bran, A., & Vaidis, D. C. (2021). Does Minimal Inconsistency Evoke Negative Affect? Report From 3 Studies Using an Implicit Measure of Emotion. Psychological Studies, 66(4), 105-112.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-020-00594-4

9. Wang, K., Goldenberg, A., Dorison, C. A., Miller, J. K., Uusberg, A., Lerner, J. S., Bran, A., & Isager, P. M. (2021). A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Human Behaviour, 5(8), 1089-1110.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01173-x

10. Bran, A., & Vaidis, D. C. (2020). Assessing risk-taking: What to measure and how to measure it. Journal of Risk Research, 23(4), 490-503.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2019.1591489.

11. Vaidis, D. C., & Bran, A. (2020). Cognitive Dissonance Theory (2 nd edition). Dans Dana S. Dunn (Dir.) Oxford Bibliographies in Psychology. Oxford University Press.
https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199828340-0156

12. Bran, A., & Vaidis, D. C. (2020). On the Characteristics of the Cognitive Dissonance State: Exploration Within the Pleasure Arousal Dominance Model. Psychologica Belgica, 60(1),1–17. https://doi.org/10.5334/pb.517

13. Vaidis, D. C., & Bran, A. (2019). Respectable Challenges to a Respectable Theory: Cognitive Dissonance Theory Requires Conceptualization Clarification and Operational Tools. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01189

14. Vaidis, D. C., & Bran, A. (2018). Some prior considerations about dissonance to understand its reduction: Comment on McGrath (2017). Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 12(6). 
https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12411

– Project management (method, steps, tools)
– Motivation and Engagement: Identify factors of motivation and demotivation within a team; propose solutions to increase motivation and engagement.
– Stress Management: Identify stress factors within a team and explore potential solutions to manage them.

– ANR PhD-EXP Project with the Institute of Education Research (University of Bourgogne Franche Comté).
– CIFRE Partnership with the Parisian Laboratory of Social Psychology (University of Paris – Nanterre).
– CIFRE Partnership with the PerSEUS laboratory at the University of Lorraine and the ADEF laboratory at the University of Aix-Marseille.

– Associate editor for Informing Science Institute.
– Reviewer for Frontiers in Psychology.
– Member of the Council of Doctoral School 3CH (ED 261).