Hello, I'm
I study why people believe what they believe—and whether minds can change. At Carnegie Mellon, I build AI systems that engage with misinformation through dialogue rather than deletion.
Featured Work
Science · Cover Story
In conversations with over 2,000 conspiracy believers, AI-driven dialogues reduced belief by ~20% on average—effects that persisted for months. One in four participants completely reversed their stance.
Read moreA perspective on how LLMs might reshape the information ecosystem—for better and worse—and what safeguards we need as persuasive AI systems become ubiquitous.
Read more
Public Tool
A free tool that lets anyone have a conversation with an AI trained to thoughtfully engage with conspiracy theories. Over 150,000 users and counting.
Try it"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."
F. Scott Fitzgerald
About
I'm an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where I direct the Viewpoints Lab. My work sits at the intersection of psychology, political science, and artificial intelligence.
Before CMU, I was a postdoc at MIT Sloan with David Rand and Gordon Pennycook, and completed my PhD at Emory under the mentorship of Scott Lilienfeld.
More about me
Research Themes
What makes people update their beliefs? I study the cognitive and social mechanisms behind attitude change, conspiracy beliefs, and motivated reasoning.
Can AI systems engage productively with misinformation? I develop and test dialogue-based interventions using large language models.
The psychology of ideology, authoritarianism, and polarization—studied with an eye toward symmetry across the political spectrum.
Recognition
2026
2025
2024