Hi! My name is Raihan (Rye-hawn). I'm a PhD Candidate in Management and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at UC San Diego's Rady School. I research the psychological causes and consequences of moral disagreement and societal polarization, with applications to politics, criminal justice, and extremism. I explore these topics using methods and theories from psychology, behavioral economics, sociology, and political science. My research has been published in top interdisciplinary and social psychology journals, including Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Personality and Social Psychology Review, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Social Psychological and Personality Science.  My work has also been featured in outlets including CNN, KPBS, and ABC News, and has been cited in congressional testimony.

In my recent work, I have found that incentivizing punishment can destabilize cooperation with anonymous strangers, that punishment of morally agreeable acts erodes the legitimacy of punishers and receptivity to punishment, and that stock trading by members of Congress diminishes citizens’ willingness to comply with the law. Moving forward, I am examining the role of moralistic outrage in motivating political action and how it relates to emotion regulation and meaning in life.

In my free time, I enjoy traveling, especially with road trips, hiking, outdoor rock climbing, running, cooking elaborate desserts to impress my wife, and hosting people for dinner. These days, I have been attempting to bake sourdough bread. Sometimes I write social commentary.