Hello!

I’m a PhD student at Stony Brook University in the Department of Political Science. I study political decision making using methods from political psychology and behavioral economics. I am particularly interested in the expression of political preferences. My work explores the relationship between political preferences, social norms, psychological dispositions, and economic preferences. I am also interested in the evolving political discourse and policy action around climate change, technological innovation, disease outbreaks, terrorism, population growth, resource distribution, and similar collective risks.

My research agenda explores the questions:

1. Can context-neutral economic preferences and value statements predict context-laden political preferences?
2. How do political engagement and the social learning of “what goes with what” reshape this relationship?
3. How do people determine the salience of political issues, particualrly those with uncertain outcomes?
4. How do individual preferences shape political cooperation and the expression of beliefs in a social environment?

I did my undergraduate studies at the University of New Hampshire, where I majored in political science and international affairs with minors in philosophy, economics, and American history. All of these disciplines and more inform my work today and help me to explore the complexities of the political decision making.

I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to work as the Director of Communications for Leading Cities, where I learned the value of science communication for technological integration and the importance of providing public support for social innovation.

When I’m not doing research, I like to spend my time studying languages (currently focusing on Italian), rock climbing, and playing whatever instruments I can get my hands on. Lover of indie music, cinema, and the NBA.

In Progress:

• Equivalency Framing as a Partisan Identity Catalyst
• Goal Resolution and Political Reprioritization (with Reuben Kline)
• Minding the (Experimental) Gap: Comparing Prosociality and Comprehension with Real and Hypothetical Incentives in the Lab and Online (with Reuben Kline, Alexa Bankert, and Ignacio Urbina)
• Does Social Signaling in a Public Goods Game Encourage Pareto Optimality or Detrimental Freeriding? (with Reuben Kline, Ignacio Urbina, William Brown, and Josh McDonnell)
• The Effects of Social Learning on Success in a Collective Risk Social Dilemma
• The Nature and Expression of Political Preferences
• Populism and the Attention Economy (with Adam Panish)

Thanks for stopping by! Email me if you’d like to collaborate.