People are often told to “be themselves.” But the social world challenges us to do the opposite: A variety of different audiences (peers, family, coworkers) might want different things out of us. So, we must navigate their preferences. My research explores how people learn these social strategies, what strategies people think are effective for different goals, and what people think of those who engage in strategic social behavior. Most of my work examines these questions in childhood, when a lot of this complex reasoning comes online, but I also conduct research with adults.

I am currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago working with Alex Shaw at the Developmental Investigations of Behavior and Strategy Lab. Before graduate school, I was a lab manager for Yarrow Dunham and Paul Bloom at Yale University. You can see my CV here and some of my current research areas below: