Becca Levy
Section of Chronic Disease Epidemiology/ Social & Behavioral Sciences
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
becca.levy@yale.edu

Yale School of Medicine link

Research
Dr. Levy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University School of Medicine. She received her doctoral training in Social Psychology, with a focus on the Psychology of Aging, from Harvard University. Prior to her current appointment, she was a National Institute of Aging NRSA Individual Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division on Aging and the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She recently received the Springer Award for Early Career Achievement on Adult Development and Aging from the American Psychological Association and a Career Award from the National Institute on Aging.

Dr. Levy's research has focused on the influence of psycho-social factors on cognitive and physical health in old age. Specifically, through a series of experimental studies, she has documented how older individuals' negative stereotypes of aging can lead to a number of detrimental changes, including a decline in memory performance, self-efficacy, will-to-live, and a heightened cardiovascular response to stress. Conversely, she has found that older individuals' positive stereotypes of aging can have a beneficial effect on these outcomes.

Dr. Levy has been building on her experimental findings by examining: (1) whether older individuals' stereotypes of aging influence long-term health; and (2) if so, the mechanism by which this influence occurs. Dr. Levy is affiliated with the Social and Behavioral Sciences Program, Chronic Disease Epidemiology Division and Yale Program on Aging.