Research Interests

• Attitude Change/Persuasion
• Communication
• Computational Modeling
• Internet and Online Platforms
• Media
• Networks
• Text Analysis

I study the structural, cultural, and relational foundations of social division and conflict, with a particular focus on how people construct boundaries between social groups and how those boundaries shape political attitudes and behavior. My research is especially interested in the intersection of polarization, misinformation, identity, and political communication: how narratives about social groups spread, how they shape perceptions of threat and social difference, and how digital platforms can amplify these dynamics. I use quantitative, computational, and mixed methods to study these processes across observational data, surveys, social media, and other large-scale textual data, with the broader goal of understanding the nature, causes, and consequences of polarization and developing evidence-based approaches to reducing harmful forms of division.