I am a PhD student pursuing a joint-degree in Psychology and Social Policy at Princeton University, where I am advised by Professors Elke U. Weber and Alin Coman. I received my B.S. degree in 2019 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where I double-majored in Cognitive Science and Economics.  

Current research focus: 

My dissertation research focuses on attitude-behavior gaps and how to close them in prosocial and pro-environmental contexts. 

Attitude-behavior gaps occur when our behaviors do not align with our beliefs (or behavioral intentions) on a particular issue. Psychologists have proposed various types of interventions to close belief/intention-behavior gaps in pro-environmental contexts. However, even as threat of climate change looms closer, psychologists have not paid enough attention to certain unsustainable consumer trends that are becoming increasingly concerning as they accelerate exponentially. The consumption of fast-fashion is one such worrying trend, with the fashion industry projected to account for a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions by 2050 based on its current trajectory. Fast fashion is also accompanied by social issues such as poor labor conditions for factory workers. I take on this vastly understudied issue through my dissertation, in which I investigate and attempt to correct the maladaptive consumer psychology underlying the fast fashion boom. 

Dissertation summary: 

In Chapter 1, I propose leveraging the cognitive discomfort arising from having misaligned attitudes and behaviors to close said gaps in consumers who care about climate change and/or fair trade yet continue to consume fast fashion. I also explore whether prosocial behaviors in one domain (e.g., eating less meat) can have positive spillovers into other domains (e.g., sustainably consuming fashion). In Chapter 2, I examine how consumers value of different attributes of clothing (e.g., sustainable/fair-trade production, price, quality, etc.) and the optimal ways to present information about these attributes on standardized clothing labels (recently proposed by the EU to address the fast fashion crisis). In Chapter 3, I assess the relative efficacies of norms, peer influence, elite cues, institutional signals, and evidence-based interventions to determine the best way to curb the consumption of fast fashion.