Education
Ph.D., Communication,
Stanford University
M.A., Communication,
Stanford University
September 2017 - June 2022 (expected)
September 2017 - June 2020
I am a 4th year doctoral candidate focusing on topics in the field of media psychology. I conduct research in the Social Media Lab. I recently completed fellowships with the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society and the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis. My current work on AI-Mediated Communication is funded by the Ethics, Society and Technology Hub.
B.A., Psychology
B.A., Linguistics
Stony Brook University
August 2013Â - May 2017
In my undergraduate career, I focused on how people form impressions of gender and status through text-based communication. I worked as an Assistant Director and tutor at the Stony Brook Writing Center.
Projects
AI-Mediated Communication
AI-MC is communication between people in which a computational agent operates on behalf of a communicator by modifying, augmenting, or generating messages to accomplish communication or interpersonal goals. This burgeoning research area prompts re-evaluation and potentially expansion of theories in computer-mediated communication. I am particularly interested in how AI might influence language production and interpersonal dynamics in a conversation. Furthermore, I am asking ethical questions about the role of AI in reinforcing and/or dismantling human stereotypes and biases. I presented on the conceptual and empirical aspects of this research area at the International Communication Association's annual conference. The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) recently covered this work.
Social Media Use and Well-Being
Despite garnering widespread scholarly and media attention, the connection between social media use and well-being is not fully understood. My colleagues in the Social Media Lab and I conducted a large-scale meta-analysis to better understand the link between these two variables. Our findings suggest that there are small but significant tradeoffs in well-being that are connected to social media use. You can read an overview of our meta-analysis at the link below.
However, some barriers to understanding this relationship are rooted in methodological choices. Recently, my colleagues and I conducted survey-based experiments and found that the way researchers ask questions about social media use can prime how participants' report depression symptoms - but the opposite is not true. You can find out more about this project here. My future work will emphasize more robust methods of social media use measurement, and the directionality of the social media use and well-being relationship.
Perceptions of Social Robots
I examined the relationships between perceptions of warmth and competence, emotional responses, and behavioral tendencies in the context of social robots. I conducted a study using the 342 social robots in the Stanford Social Robots Database and learned that people have similar emotional and behavioral reactions to robots as they have to humans; impressions about the robots' warmth and competence predicted specific emotional responses and those emotional responses predicted distinct behavioral tendencies. However, the predicted relationships between impressions and harmful behavioral tendencies were absent. My findings are published in the HRI 2019 proceedings. Find my presentation from the conference below.
Other Interests
Live Music
I'm an avid concert-goer and have gone to hundreds of shows. Stadiums and small clubs are equally appealing to me. No genre is too strange - let me know if you have any recommendations! Pictured is a 2017 concert with my friends at one of my favorite venues, Madison Square Garden.
Hiking
Since moving to California I have tried to take advantage of the temperate weather by spending time exploring the many nearby scenic views. Pictured is a favorite hike up to Maisie's Peak at Steven's Creek County Park.
Travel
In the past few years I have prioritized going to places that I haven't been before. Conferences have taken me to South Korea and the Czech Republic, but I've also recently visited Chicago, Denver, Portland, and Washington D.C. Pictured is a temple in Hoi An, Vietnam.
Tutorials
As someone who recently learned more advanced computational techniques, I am invested in helping others learn new skills in an accessible and interesting manner. You can find a recent R- and Python-based tutorial here.
