Pekka Santtila

Professor Santtila is Professor of Psychology, NYU Shanghai; Global Network Professor, NYU. Previously, he was Professor of Applied Psychology and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology at the Åbo Akademi University in Finland.

His research is focused on legal psychology. He aims at improving the quality of investigative interviews using simulated interviews with avatars as well as exploring the possibility of using AI to support such interviews with question suggestions or by replacing human interviewers. His also does research into human sexuality aiming to understand and develop treatments for sexual dysfunctions.

Professor Santtila has provided investigative advice to the police, acted as an expert witness in numerous legal cases and consulted child sexual abuse investigations. He is a licensed psychologist and specialist in legal psychology (Finland).

Select Publications

• Niu, C., Wen, G., Ventus, D., Jern, P., Nyman, T. J., Li, Y. & Santtila, P. (2024). High-intensity interval training (HIIT) and slow breathing interventions alleviate premature ejaculation (PE) symptoms. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 24(2), 100457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijchp.2024.100457
• Li, S., Ahlgren, R., Wang, Y., Haginoya, S., Granhag, P. A., & Santtila, P. (2024). A serious game with avatar suspects can be used to train naive participants in the Strategic Use of Evidence, 1-26. Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24732850.2023.2299492
• Haginoya, S., Ibe, T., Yamamoto, S., Yoshimoto, N., Mizushi, H., & Santtila, P. (2023). AI avatar tells you what happened: The first test of using AI-operated children in simulated interviews to train investigative interviewers. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1133621. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/pyqxb
• Segal, A., Bakaitytė, A., Kaniušonytė, G., Ustinavičiūtė-Klenauskė, L., Haginoya, S., Zhang, Y., Pompedda, F., Zukauskiene, R. & Santtila, P. (2023). Associations between emotions and psychophysiological states and confirmation bias in question formulation in ongoing simulated investigative interviews of child sexual abuse. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1085567
• Pompedda, F., Zhang, Y., Haginoya, S., & Santtila, P. (2022). A Mega-Analysis of the Effects of Feedback on the Quality of Simulated Child Sexual Abuse Interviews with Avatars. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 37, 485–498. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-022-09509-7
• Zhang, Y., Segal, A., Pompedda, F., Haginoya, S., & Santtila, P. (2022). Confirmation bias in simulated child sexual abuse (CSA) interviews: Abuse assumption influences interviewing and decision-making processes. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 27(2), 314–328. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/hyk7j 

Education

• PhD, Psychology
  Abo Akademi University, Finland
• MSc, Investigative Psychology
  University of Liverpool, UK
• MA, Psychology
  Abo Akademi University, Finland