About Me

Why do seemingly smart people sometimes believe stupid things? Why are some people more likely to believe bullshitters than experts? Are narcissists bad thinkers? Can a person bullshit their way to a better job? When can reflective thinking lead to worse decisions?

Using a mix of experimental and correlational methods, my primary research focuses on examining the processes crucial for rational thinking and decision-making, with a particular interest in why people fall for and spread misleading information in various contexts and applied settings. My work not only looks at how people think about and evaluate external information, but also how we think about and evaluate our own internal thought processes (known as “metacognition”), including our ability to recognize and correct the reasoning errors and other cognitive mishaps that we all experience from time to time. My goal is to create research that will help people and policymakers become better critical thinkers who can more quickly “detect and reject” misleading information before it can negatively impact their lives and the lives of others.

I’m currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, working with Dr. Peter Loewen as a member of the Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO) and the PEARL Lab to investigate the spread of mis/disinformation, bullshit, and conspiracy theories and their impact on political beliefs and decision-making. I’ve held previous postodoctoral positions at the Department of Political Science at University of Miami - working with Dr. Joe Uscinski to study the spread of political conspiracy theories - and at the Education in Persistence and Innovation Center (EPIC) at Teachers College, Columbia University, where I helped lead a team of researchers investigating factors underlying employee success and flourishment.

I received my PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, ON, Canada working under the supervision of Dr. Jonathan Fugelsang and Dr. Evan F. Risko. I received a Master of Science degree in Research/Experimental Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where I studied with Dr. Chris Cunningham. I also have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication (Public Relations/Strategic Communication) from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. I also have extensive graduate training in Industrial-Organizational Psychology (supervised by Dr. Stephen Vodanovich) at the University of West Florida, but a serious car accident prevented me from graduating and set my life on a different path.

My work has been covered by a number of popular international media outlets including Forbes, The Guardian, CBC News, Global News, Vice.com, Inc.com, and Psychology Today, which you can read more about by clicking here. If you’d like to find out more about my current projects and scientific interests, use the Research tab on the menu above or click here.