Abhay Alaukik, PhD

Hi! I am a computational social scientist using computational/mathematical models to help develop better theorietical accounts of social phenomena.  Broadly, I focus on topics in social cognition, political psychology, and moral psychology using a variety of frameworks such as ecological psychology, evidence accumulation models, and agent-based modeling. My current projects include (a) evaluating how people end up with polarized and extreme information because of goal-directed rational information sampling, (b) modeling associations between social groups (e.g., race) and valence (good vs. bad), (c) studying networks of causal propositions asserted in scientific articles, (d) understanding how Americans conceptualize "freedom," and (e) the dynamics of moral outrage (especially online).

Besides formal computational modeling, I also frequently use advanced statistical tools like Bayesian stats, hierarchical modeling, a variety of dimensionality reduction techniques, deep neural network-based model fitting, and agent-based modeling in my projects.

I am currently working as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Social Science Collaboratory at the University of Florida.

I am on the job market!