BIOGRAPHY

I am an Associate Professor (with tenure) at the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. My research integrates insights from economics and psychology to uncover the drivers and barriers of behaviors that advance individuals, organizational and societal well-being. 

A core area of my work examines the drivers of (un)ethical decisions in economically important contexts,  focusing on how financial and psychological motives interact to shape judgment, behavior, and engagment with information —shedding light on phenomena such as institutional corruption, biased advice, and professional misconduct. Another key line of research investigates ways to overcome barriers to healthy behavior. I study how traditional tools like incentives and information provision can be combined with psychology-based interventions to promote healthy habits, support mental well-being, and encourage the take-up of life-saving vaccines and preventative screenings. Recently, I developed a research agenda focused on understanding when and why behavioral interventions that are successful in initial studies fail to work at scale. This work sheds light on the conditions that support the scalability and reproducibility of behavioral science insights, enabling their translation into effective, real-world solutions.

My research leverages various experimental methodologies, including laboratory experiments, online surveys, and field experiments. I have advised organizations such as the UK Behavioural Insight Team, UCLA Health, the NHL, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and CMU Advancement.  My research has been published in leading journals including the American Economic Review, Nature, Nature Human Behavior, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Management Science. My work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the National Institute of Aging via several Roybal grants from CHIBE and NBER Roybal Center for Behavior Change in Health, J-PAL North America, and the Russell Sage Foundation. I am Associate Editor at Management Science.