I am a PhD candidate in political science at Florida State University and Fellow at the LeRoy Collins Institute. I study political behavior and communication using theory-driven experiments.
My research explores how citizens perceive their political environment – what motivations, information, and incentives they believe are behind the political choices people make. Citizens see some others speaking up about issues, and they see others staying silent. They see parties in Congress agreeing on some votes and disagreeing on others. They see voters supporting their party’s positions on issues more often than they see divergence. What these actions communicate depends on the beliefs of the beholder: Do Congressional elites care about policy quality when they vote, or only about partisan goals? When someone is silent in a political discussion, does that mean they agree with the majority opinion, have no opinion, or are they concealing a minority opinion? Are other citizens generally issue-voters, or do they generally follow their party on issues? Using quantitative methods, formal modeling, and controlled experiments, I examine citizens’ “lay theories” to better understand what people believe about their political context and how these beliefs influence their own behaviors.
My job market paper examines how media partisanship – and hence beliefs about the political alignment of informed voters – influences choices by uninformed voters to abstain or guess in elections.
Education
Florida State University | PhD in Political Science | 2021 - 2026 (expected)
University of Pittsburgh | MA in Economics (ABD) | 2014 - 2019
Princeton University | AB in Mathematics | 2006 - 2011