Reuben Kline

I am a political economist and behavioral scientist at Stony Brook University, where I am an associate professor of Political Science and Director of the Behavioral Political Economy Lab. I'm also affiliated with the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, and the Detecting and Addressing Bias in Humans, Data, and Institutions graduate training program. In 2025 I assumed the role of Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Political Science. 

In my research I focus on the ethical and psychological aspects of cooperation and collective decision making. In particular I am interested in understanding how people think about fairness and equity in social dilemmas like public goods and common pool resources. What rules, norms, and procedures are considered "fair"? How does self-interest shape one's commitment to principles of fairness? How do people incorporate uncertainty and risk into their evaluation of fairness? How do perceptions of fairness and equity shape behavior, especially in settings of conflict and cooperation, the distribution of resources, and the assignment of credit and blame?

In my research I combine theories from behavioral economics and cognitive, evolutionary and social psychology with methods drawn from experimental economics, and meta-analysis along  with other theories and methods, I answer these questions in research applied to domains such as preferences toward welfare and wealth redistribution, climate change mitigation, disaster prevention, artificial intelligence, and dishonesty.

My work has been published in outlets such as Nature Climate Change, Nature Human Behaviour, the Journal of Politics, Political Behavior, Ecological Economics, and the Journal of Environmental Psychology.