Mollie A. Ruben PhD
Research Assistant Professor, General Internal Medicine
150 S Huntington Avenue | (617) 414-5013mruben7@bu.edu
Sections
General Internal Medicine
Biography
Dr. Ruben earned her PhD in psychology at Northeastern University where she developed a strong background in doctor-patient communication, measuring and quantifying nonverbal behavior, creating standardized tests to evaluate physicians’ interpersonal skill, and meta-analysis. Dr. Ruben is a certified and reliable Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and Roter Interaction Analysis (RIAS) coder. Dr. Ruben uses these coding systems to examine the impact of providers’ communication style on patient health outcomes, with a particular interest in ameliorating the physical pain experience for patients. Additionally, Dr. Ruben is interested in doctor-patient communication among sexual minorities or LGBT patients.
Education
Psychology, PhD, Northeastern University
Psychology, MA, Northeastern University
Psychology, BA, Franklin & Marshall College
Publications
Stosic MD, Ruben MA, Weaver AE, Blanch-Hartigan D, Sanders JJ, Schwartz R, Jeong S, Lam RX, Hall JA, Duong F, Meyer EC, Waisel D, Blum RH. What Is Clinical Empathy in Anesthesiology? Perspectives From Practicing Anesthesiologists. A A Pract. 2025 Sep 01; 19(9):e02045. PMID: 40911041.
Published on 8/6/2025Ruben MA, Weaver AE, Stein LAR. Modern racism contributes to overall less pain management and a "one size fits all" approach. Health Psychol Rep. 2025; 13(3):226-235. PMID: 40959658.
Published on 5/14/2025Paganini GA, Weaver AE, Carroll A, Ruben MA, Mathur VA, Paige Lloyd E. Leveraging insights from the psychological science of gender stereotyping to advance scholarship on gender-diverse individuals' pain experiences. J Pain. 2025 Aug; 33:105430. PMID: 40379067.
Published on 12/28/2024Stage MA, Creamer MM, Ruben MA. "Having providers who are trained and have empathy is life-saving": Improving primary care communication through thematic analysis with ChatGPT and human expertise. PEC Innov. 2025 Jun; 6:100371. PMID: 39866208.
Published on 11/30/2024Shepard EC, Ruben M, Weyandt LL. Emotion Recognition Accuracy Among Individuals With ADHD: A Systematic Review. J Atten Disord. 2025 Feb; 29(3):174-194. PMID: 39614669.
Published on 10/23/2024Stosic MD, Flynn-Evans EE, Duenas J, Ruben MA. Gender Bias in the Perception of Others' Fatigue: Women Report More Fatigue Than Men But Have Their Fatigue Underestimated by Others. Sex Roles. 2024 Nov; 90(11):1599-1615. PMID: 40809322.
Published on 4/29/2024Ruben MA, Stosic MD. Documenting Race and Gender Biases in Pain Assessment and a Novel Intervention Designed to Reduce Biases. J Pain. 2024 Sep; 25(9):104550. PMID: 38692397.
Published on 4/3/2024Daniali H, Ruben MA, Aslaksen PM, Fiskum C, Kaptchuk TJ, Flaten MA. The Effect of Singular Nonverbal Behaviours of Experimenters on Pain Reports. J Pain Res. 2024; 17:1345-1360. PMID: 38584862.
Published on 12/7/2023Ruben MA, Stosic MD. Preserving privacy in the era of openness: Commentary on open science requirements for identifiable data in psychological science journals. Am Psychol. 2024 Apr; 79(3):463-465. PMID: 38059977.
Published on 11/1/2023Stosic MD, Blanch-Hartigan D, Ruben MA, Meyer EC, Henig A, Waisel DB, Blum RH. "You Look Young! Are You a Doctor?" A Qualitative Content Analysis of Anesthesiology Resident Responses to Ageism in Clinical Encounters. Anesthesiology. 2023 Nov 01; 139(5):667-674. PMID: 37582252.