I am a comparative social psychologist. My work explores social patterns in cooperative behaviour over resources in contexts with social interdependence, such as common-pool resource (CPR) dilemmas, more commonly known as the tragedy of the commons. I study CPR and other social dilemmas experimentally from comparative, developmental, and cross-cultural methodological perspectives. I focus on intra- and inter-group processes to draw inferences about our evolved cooperative skills and motivations for environmental sustainability. My work also encompasses an applied branch of exploration, which focuses on identifying social group characteristics that hinder or promote real-world resource cooperation, as well as testing interventions to encourage sustainability.

Hailing originally from a small town in upstate New York, I am a citizen of the US, Canada, and the Netherlands. I completed a BSc in psychology and zoology at the University of Toronto, Canada. I then pursued conservation work with children in Tanzania, working the TZ branch of the Jane Goodall Foundation's Roots & Shoots programme. Following this, I completed an MSc in comparative & evolutionary psychology from the University of St Andrews, UK. I then earned a PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology's comparative & developmental psychology department in Leipzig, Germany, followed by a postdoc in the same lab. Thereafter, I worked as a senior behavioural scientist at The Behaviouralist, a London-based behavioural science firm, where I specialised in testing applied behavioural solutions for increasing sustainable resource behaviours. I then returned to academic research at the University of Dundee as a Lecturer in the psychology department where I now continue to develop both basic and applied avenues of research.