Publications & Research

Abstract: Political language can serve as a powerful tool for mobilizing and uniting voters. The present work examines partisan differences in the use of interdependent language—language that emphasizes connection, collective goals, and cooperation—in US Congressional campaign emails during the 2024 general election. Using computerized text analysis (LIWC), we analyze over 15,000 emails from 378 Senate and House candidates to assess the prevalence of interdependent language, as measured by first-person plural pronouns, references to affiliation, and social language. Our findings suggest that, on average, Democratic candidates employ significantly more interdependent language than their Republican counterparts. However, we observe pronounced shifts in this pattern over time, with Republicans’ use of interdependent language increasing to match Democrats as Election Day approaches. Given prior evidence that framing issues in interdependent terms can foster cooperation and collective action, understanding how political candidates engage with the language of interdependence can provide insight into the rhetorical tools used to rally support and motivate political engagement.

Abstract: A representative democracy requires citizens to be politically engaged; however, a substantial portion of eligible United States voters do not vote. While structural (e.g., ease or difficulty of voting) and individual (e.g., political efficacy, civic knowledge) factors contribute to (a lack of) turnout, the present work adopts a sociocultural perspective to investigate an additional contributor: how people construe—or make sense of—the duty to vote. We examine whether, and for whom, construing voting as interdependent (i.e., voting as a duty to others), compared to independent (i.e., voting as a duty to self), is associated with increased perceived duty and political engagement. Archival analysis (n = 10,185) documents how perceived duty to vote relates to voter turnout in a nationally representative sample of Americans (Study 1). Two preregistered studies (total n = 1,256) provide evidence that naturalistically construing one’s duty to vote as interdependent (Study 2) and experimentally reflecting on interdependence (Study 3) both predict increases in perceived voting duty. Perceived duty to vote, in turn, is associated with heightened political engagement intentions. Taken together, the present work suggests that how voting is construed—as an independent duty to the self or an interdependent duty to others—may meaningfully influence political engagement, with implications for voter turnout interventions.

Press: Princeton Research Record, Newswise, iNews

Abstract: Contemporary debates about addressing inequality require a common, accurate understanding of the scope of the issue at hand. Yet little is known about who notices inequality in the world around them and when. Across five studies (N = 8,779) employing various paradigms, we consider the role of ideological beliefs about the desirability of social equality in shaping individuals’ attention to—and accuracy in detecting—inequality across the class, gender, and racial domains. In Study 1, individuals higher (versus lower) on social egalitarianism were more likely to naturalistically remark on inequality when shown photographs of urban scenes. In Study 2, social egalitarians were more accurate at differentiating between equal versus unequal distributions of resources between men and women on a basic cognitive task. In Study 3, social egalitarians were faster to notice inequality-relevant changes in images in a change detection paradigm indexing basic attentional processes. In Studies 4 and 5, we varied whether unequal treatment adversely affected groups at the top or bottom of society. In Study 4, social egalitarians were, on an incentivized task, more accurate at detecting inequality in speaking time in a panel discussion that disadvantaged women but not when inequality disadvantaged men. In Study 5, social egalitarians were more likely to naturalistically point out bias in a pattern detection hiring task when the employer was biased against minorities but not when majority group members faced equivalent bias. Our results reveal the nuances in how our ideological beliefs shape whether we accurately notice inequality, with implications for prospects for addressing it. 

Press: Kellogg Insight, Ars Technica, LSE News

Abstract: This research examines the relationship between one's theory of a good life and allostatic load, a marker of cumulative biological risk, and how this relationship differs by socioeconomic status. Among adults with a bachelor's degree or higher, those who saw individual characteristics (e.g. personal happiness, effort) as part of a good life had lower levels of allostatic load than those who did not. In contrast, among adults with less than a bachelor's degree, those who saw supportive relationships as part of a good life had lower levels of allostatic load than those who did not. These findings extend past research on socioeconomic differences in the emphasis on individual or relational factors and suggest that one's theory of a good life has health implications.