Research Interests

I have diverse research interests, reflected in the range of projects described below. In my independent research, I am currently most interested in the emotions that people experience when spending their money.

Ongoing Research

1. After taking money out of an ATM one afternoon, I noticed that I felt slightly poorer because my bank account balance had dropped. I noted that this was strange, as I was actually no poorer - I had simply converted money from my bank account into cash in my wallet. This lead to a research project centered around the question of why parting with money is unpleasant. Given that purchases entail the exchange of one asset (e.g. cash) for an equally valued asset (e.g. a t-shirt), why are they unpleasant?
2. How does the presence of fake news influence consumer response to the COVID-19 pandemic?
3. Most people don't think that politics factors into their purchasing behavior... yet they're more than willing to believe politics influences others purchases. One project investigates this dichotomy.
4. Mental health has a marketing problem—while people are interested in using resources to improve their mental health, the image of these resources, and the stigma associated with them, prevents it. How can we best boost the image of mental health resources, reducing barriers to use and ultimately empowering people to improve their wellbeing?