I am an associate professor of marketing at the University of Arizona with affiliations in psychology, cognitive science, and veterinary medicine. I am the director of the Arizona Think Tank for Behavioral Decision Making, an external faculty affiliate at Stanford University's Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS), and distinguished visiting professor in consumer behavior at EGADE Business School.

My research broadly deals with the ways consumers strive for desirable entities (humans, products, pets, AIs), how they feel about these entities, and whether their actions will lead to outcomes such as product purchases or new relationships.

In one stream of research, I examine emotional-motivational drivers of consumer decision making. This work spans from the study of desire, curiosity, hope, pride, and love to anger, pain, guilt, and shame as predictors of judgment and choice.

Another central theme of my work is trust—specifically, how trust shapes decision making and the dynamics of trust that emerge in people’s relations with other humans, products, pets, and artificial intelligence.

Important to me is to study consumers through the lens of different methods, including asking them about their opinions, attitudes, and feelings, measuring their neurophysiological responses, and observing their behavior. I utilize surveys, fMRI, and behavioral experiments to do so.

Check out some tools for designing surveys as well as conducting and interpreting functional neuroimaging studies in marketing, as well as materials and data on OSF. Read more about me and my work on my faculty webpage. Prospective students feel free to e-mail me.