She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Virginia, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Health Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and another at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in psychophysiology. Algoe's expertise spans emotions, interpersonal relationships, and health psychology. Specifically, her research focuses on understanding the basic emotional and interpersonal mechanisms through which people capitalize on opportunities from the social environment; she uses this information to guide predictions about how and why these moments can have cumulative impact on intrapersonal and interpersonal functioning.