My research asks how people emotionally respond to problems too large to see or touch — like climate change — and whether the ways we manage those emotions ultimately help or hurt. I draw on affective science, cognitive science, and psychophysiology to study emotion regulation at the boundary between individual experience and shared human problems. I approach science with a commitment to transparent, reproducible practices.
Emotion regulation and climate change
People feel a range of emotions about climate change, yet there seems to be a mismatch between the scale of the problem and the intensity of our collective responses. Most of my current work focuses on how people regulate emotional responses to climate change information, the mechanisms involved, and whether regulation — including cognitive reappraisal and mindful acceptance — leads to different outcomes. I study these questions using psychophysiological measurement, self-report, and behavioral paradigms with adult populations.
Psychophysiology and the LPP
I use electroencephalography (EEG) and peripheral physiological methods to study emotion and emotion regulation in the brain and body. I am particularly interested in the late positive potential (LPP) as a window into attention, motivation, and emotional arousal, and in building more precise models of this signal.
Earlier and collaborative work
My research background includes work on mindfulness and its social and emotional effects, including ERP studies of disgust regulation and prosocial behavior following contemplative practice. In collaborative work, I have examined how time pressure affects stress and cognitive performance, including spatial navigation and fine motor tasks.