I'm an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University. My research uses language to understand social and psychological processes, including deception and persuasion. For example, I've examined the lies people tell on dating apps, how language patterns in pet adoption profiles predict a pet getting adopted, and how verbal complexity associates with social engagements and money, plus online petition support. Some of my recent work has also evaluated how bias is revealed in physician medical notes.
I completed my PhD in Communication at Stanford University and my Masters and undergraduate degrees at Cornell University. Recently, I was selected as a "Rising Star" of the Association for Psychological Science in 2022.
I'm currently accepting PhD students, so please get in touch with me if you are interested in pursuing work in deception, language and text analysis, media psychology, or computer-mediated communication.