Xuan Zhao

Xuan Zhao is a behavioral scientist and entrepreneur known for her work on social connection, prosocial behavior, well-being, and artificial intelligence in mental health. She is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Flourish Science, a public benefit company focused on developing evidence-based, AI-enabled digital tools for mental health.

Early life and career

Zhao earned a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Zhejiang University, where she studied in Chu Kochen College. During Spring 2011, she participated in the Semester at Sea study-abroad program and published a series of online essays on purpose, personal growth, global education, and scientists’ social responsibility.

She later attended Brown University where she received a Master of Science in 2013 and a PhD in psychology in 2017. Her doctoral research focused on social behavior and human-robot interaction. Following her doctoral studies, she conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, focusing on prosocial behavior, interpersonal communication, and decision-making.

After completing her postdoctoral fellowship, Zhao joined Stanford University as a research scientist. She worked on behavioral intervention research at Stanford’s SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions) program. This center at Stanford brings together many industry leaders, researchers and well-known faces in society to inspire cultural changes using insights from the behavioral sciences. Her academic work examines how small behavioral interventions can strengthen relationships, increase well-being, and improve workplace and organizational culture.

Prosocial behavior and social connection

A major theme in Zhao’s research is that people often underestimate the positive effects of prosocial acts. In a 2022 paper with Nicholas Epley in Psychological Science, Zhao reported evidence that people needing help underestimate others’ willingness to help and how good helpers feel about helping. The research was later featured in The New York Times, Stanford News, National Geographic, and Science Friday.  

In another line of work, Zhao and Epley found that people underestimate the positive impact of compliments on recipients. That research appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Self and Identity, and was later discussed in Harvard Business Review, the BBC, Time, NPR, Stanford Research, and The Happiness Lab podcast.  

Human–robot interaction

Zhao has also published research on how humans perceive and interact with robots. In Cognition, she and Bertram F. Malle reported that people can spontaneously adopt a robot’s visual perspective, especially when the robot has a humanlike appearance. She also co-authored a methodological overview for the field, “A Primer for Conducting Experiments in Human–Robot Interaction,” published in ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction.  

Her conference work has included research on anthropomorphic robot design, including a paper on the ABOT database that was nominated for a best paper award at ACM/IEEE HRI.

After attending the Stanford School of Business Ignite program, Zhao co-founded Flourish Science in the 2022 with the goal of translating insights from behavioral science and positive psychology into scalable digital tools for well being. The company develops evidence-based mental health and wellness interventions through human-centered design artificial intelligence.

Under Zhao’s leadership, Flourish Science launched Flourish, an AI-powered application designed to support emotional resilience, stress management, and habit formation related to well-being. The platform integrates behavioral science research with conversational AI to provide coaching prompts, reflective exercises, and guided activities.

The platform has been evaluated in a multi-institutional randomized controlled trial reported in a Harvard Business School working paper. The study found that college students using the Flourish intervention reported improvements in emotional well-being, resilience, mindfulness, belonging and reductions in loneliness compared with a control group over a six-week period.

Zhao has spoken publicly about ethical AI development, the importance of scientifically validated digital health tools, and the potential for technology to strengthen human relationships rather than replace them.

Zhao’s research focuses on:

• Social psychology
• Help-seeking behavior
• Interpersonal communication
• Human–computer interaction
• Digital mental health interventions
• Organizational well-being

She has co-authored studies examining how AI-driven interventions can improve resilience and social well-being through randomized controlled trials and behavioral experiments.