Research projects

How does empathic support unfold in Reddit conversations?
In progress

How does empathic support unfold in Reddit conversations?

How do people seek and receive support online? This project uses Reddit conversations to examine whether commenters adapt their responses to what posters are asking for, and whether better-matched support leads to more positive replies from the original poster.

Empathy Social Support LLM NLP
An emotion regulation framework for interpersonal moral disagreements
Under review

An emotion regulation framework for interpersonal moral disagreements

How do people manage moral conflicts with those they care about? This project proposes an emotion-regulation framework explaining when people choose to stay silent, stand firm, or seek common ground in moral disagreements.

Emotion regulation Disagreement
Generalization of rejection and acceptance in social networks
Published (2025)

Generalization of rejection and acceptance in social networks

How do people know who might accept or reject them in new social settings? We show that people generalize rejection and acceptance across social networks, forming a gradient of approach and avoidance based on network distance.

Social rejection Generalization Social networks
Learning empathy via Pavlovian conditioning
Published (2025)

Learning empathy via Pavlovian conditioning

Humans value the welfare of other humans, but how is this valuation developed in the first place? We found that people can learn to empathize with others through Pavlovian conditioning - linking others’ mental states with their own rewards.

Empathy Prosocial behavior Pavlovian conditioning