Inspired by the Communication Neuroscience Lab's brain-as-predictor approach, I am interested in understanding how momentary similarity to key neural patterns can predict receptivity to messaging. In this project, I used a large fMRI dataset to identify patterns of neural activity that differentiate judgments of valence from judgments of self-relevance. I then look at how participants' trialwise neural similarity to these patterns in a separate fMRI health message task predicts their receptivity to those health messages.
Across various projects with my collaborators in the Impression Formation Social Neuroscience Lab, I have been actively studying how we perceive social status in others and how perceived status ultimately shapes the evaluations and decisions we make about others.
Together with the Communication Neuroscience Lab, I am exploring how stress and exposure to economic inequality affect smoking cravings and behavior using fMRI, geolocation tracking, and ecological momentary assessments (EMA).
Those who are high in external motivation to respond without prejudice tend to focus on non-racial attributes when describing others ([Norton, Sommers, Apfelbaum, Pura, & Ariely, …
Inferring the relative rank (i.e., status) of others is essential to navigating social hierarchies. A survey of the expanding social psychological and neuroscience literatures on status reveals a diversity of focuses (e.g., perceiver vs. agent), …