Embedded Files
October 10, 2025
Now under review: Right to work, left to struggle: Structural effects of Right-to-Work legislation on new labor organizing efforts
Working paper abstract:
Economic grievances in the US have become a focal driver of public unrest across partisan lines. Whereas individuals may form coordinated social groups (e.g., labor unions) to address their grievances, higher-level sociopolitical structures (e.g., labor laws) influence the activity of these social groups in complex ways. In the present study we focus on the long-term effect of Right-to-Work (RTW) laws on workers’ material conditions and the emergence of new labor unions. Using hierarchical multilevel models of archival longitudinal data from 2018-2023 (N = 6,174), we find that RTW laws depress unionization efforts decades after their passing. Moreover, RTW laws produce worse material conditions for workers and weaken the effectiveness of existing labor unions in changing these. Overall, our results suggest that RTW laws trap workers in economic precarity, increase the costs of collective organizing, and reduce unionization to a defensive and less powerful response to worsening financial prospects.
A preprint is available at: https://osf.io/rpvg7
July 2, 2025
Check out our new commentary published in Psychological Inquiry:
In our commentary we echo Sebben and Ullrich's (2025) in highlighting the importance of situating psychological research on inequality within specific target societies. Specifically, we make the case that to do so, psychological research should name the hegemonic system underlying inequality today - namely, capitalism. In our commentary, we articulate why mainstream psychological research has yet to do so, and indicate how including a historical understanding of capitalism can improve our science.
March 10, 2025
Three talks accepted at SPSSI and ISPP
I will be presenting two talks this year at SPSSI. The first talk is one of my first dissertation studies on the use of humor online to criticize the economic system in the United States. The talk is titled "A descriptive study of anti-capitalist humor online". The second talk is on a set of studies conducted in collaboration with Dr. Colin Tucker Smith and Dr. Joris Lammers on the ideological symmetry hypothesis. The talk is titled "Power-blind conservatives and power-defying liberals". This is also the project that I will be presenting virtually at ISPP.
This will be a busy summer!
February 26, 2025
I received an Association for Academic Women (AAW) Emerging Scholar Award
I am happy to announce that I received an AAW Emerging scholar award for my dissertation work on the potential role of anti-capitalist humor in (de)motivating collective action and my service to the UF community. My hope with this work is that the studies can inform the communications strategies of activist organizations that are trying to mobilize their audience.
AAW Anniversary Celebration
with my incredible husband, Devin.
February 26, 2025
Presented at the Political Psychology and Critical Perspectives Preconferences at SPSP 2025
My work with Abhay Alaukik and Dr. Gregory Webster on the effects of Right To Work laws was accepted to two SPSP pre-conferences this year. You can check out the poster here!
November 2nd, 2024
Presented at the Society of Southeastern Social Psychologists
My work with Abhay Alaukik and Dr. Gregory Webster on state labor law and material conditions affording precarity was accepted and presented as a data blitz at SSSP 2025, in Memphis, TN.
In a series of multi-level models, we find that states with Right to Work (RTW) laws have significantly lower rates of new labor organizing across 2018-2022, and offer worse material conditions for the average citizen.
October 4th, 2024
Now a PhD Candidate!
My dissertation proposal "Toward the gallows or the frontline? The effects of anti-capitalist humor on collective action and the normalization of disaffected consent" has been accepted with no edits by my dissertation committee. For my dissertation, I will be studying the effects of different forms of anti-capitalist humor on the development of individual-level predictors of collective action. In particular, I am interested in examining whether dark, self-deprecating humor about capitalism, work and economic prospects can have detrimental effects on people's willingness to participate in collective action. This work will also explore the potential effect of disparagement humor in creating group identity, and feelings of anger toward capitalist agents (e.g., billionaires) that may motivate people to engage in collective action for social change.
September 6th, 2024
Now published in Political Psychology!
The paper Temporal Comparisons Shape System Justification Processes is now published in Political Psychology. Across four studies, we examine how the typically-observed relationship between system justification and conservatism changes through temporal comparisons.
If you would like a copy of the paper, feel free to contact me!
July 5th, 2024
Paper now accepted for publication in Political Psychology!
The paper Temporal comparisons shape system justification processes, in collaboration with Laura van Berkel, Matthew Baldwin and Joris Lammers has now been accepted for publication in Political Psychology. Across four studies we connect the literature on system justification to that of social and temporal comparison and suggest that system justification is meaningfully influenced by comparisons of the status quo to a temporal standard (i.e., past vs future).
June 5, 2024
June 5, 2024
Accepted to the 2024 Summer Institute in Computational Social Science (SICSS)
I will be attending the 2-week long summer program to learn machine learning, text and web scraping, and more!
April 15, 2024
April 15, 2024
The Gainesville Iguana
In Press: Front page article in the April-May 2024 issue of The Gainesville Iguana
In Press: Front page article in the April-May 2024 issue of The Gainesville Iguana
In 2023, the Florida legislature passed SB 846 - also known as the "countries of concern" bill, whereby the Florida state preemptively deems applicants from Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, China, Russia, and North Korea to be potential threats to the country. The bill creates an important and hostile roadblock to prospective graduate assistants, postdocs, faculty and visiting scholars from the countries. This roadblock poses certain risks for applicants and adds to the streak of attacks on academic freedom in Florida universities, further removing decision-making power from experts in the field.
If you would like to read more about the topic, you can visit The Gainesville Iguana, linked on the left, and search for the May-April 2024 issue.
March 7th, 2024
Accepted: Liberals’ group preferences depend on target group’s socio-economic power
Accepted: Liberals’ group preferences depend on target group’s socio-economic power
My abstract submission was accepted as a 15-minute presentation at the SPSSI 2024 Conference. I will be presenting three studies (n = 843) conducted in collaboration with Dr. Joris Lammers and Dr. Colin Tucker Smith. The studies examine the extent to which differences in power explain conservatives' and liberals' preferences for different groups.
February 8th - 10th, 2024
Presented at SPSP 2024
Presented at SPSP 2024
I presented a 15 minute talk at the Political Psychology Preconference. The talk was titled Wanting change, but not inclined to pursue it: Exploring the concept of disaffected consent in the context of U.S. neoliberalism.
At the main conference, I presented a poster titled Liberals' and conservatives' differential affinity for group power(lessness) about two correlational studies conducted in collaboration with Dr. Joris Lammers and Dr. Colin Tucker Smith.
September 4th, 2023
Accepted for publication at Social and Personality Psychology Compass!
My first first-author publication has been accepted in Social and Personality Psychology Compass. In collaboration with Dr. Mary Turner DePalma, we test the effect of different forms of pandemic-specific counterfactual thinking (if-then thoughts) on liberals' and conservatives' attitudes toward COVID-19 prevention. You can access the paper here, which also includes a link to a public OSF page with study materials, data and code.
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