What motivates people to act when success depends on others?

As a behavioral scientist, I use large-scale experiments to study collective motivation and design psychological interventions for challenges like climate change.

I am a doctoral candidate in social psychology at New York University, co-advised by Madalina Vlasceanu at Stanford University and Jay Van Bavel at NYU. My work is supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, an NYU Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, and a National Institute of Social Sciences Dissertation Grant.

Learn more about my experience on my CV.

Research Overview

My research investigates what motivates people to contribute to collective goals when success depends on others. People often control whether they participate, speak up, advocate, or make a sacrifice— but not whether other people, leaders, or institutions will do what is needed for the larger effort to succeed.

I study this problem primarily in the context of climate change, where progress depends on coordinated action across individuals, groups, and institutions. Using behavioral megastudies, cross-national experiments, and research embedded in live policy debates, I examine what motivates participation, which psychological barriers prevent it, and when different barriers must be addressed together.

See more detail about my publications here.

EFFICACY AND COLLECTIVE MOTIVATION

A central focus of my work is efficacy: whether people expect an effort to produce meaningful results. Across two large U.S. studies, governmental response efficacy (the belief that government will effectively address a problem) was among the strongest predictors of climate engagement.

This points to a broader motivational problem: people can be willing and able to contribute while doubting that the other people or institutions on whom success depends will do their part. The same problem arises when employees consider speaking up, citizens consider advocating for change, or groups pursue goals that no individual can achieve alone.

COMPARING MOTIVATIONAL STRATEGIES AT SCALE

Because many psychological theories offer plausible explanations for action, I use megastudies, or large intervention tournaments, to compare them directly. I led a U.S. megastudy with more than fifty researchers, testing seventeen theory-based interventions with over 30,000 participants.

Different strategies worked for different behaviors: moral appeals were particularly effective for increasing donations, while patriotic appeals were especially effective for increasing letters to elected representatives. Across forms of collective engagement, however, the most consistently effective intervention combined collective efficacy with the positive emotions of acting together.

Different behaviors appear to be held back by different psychological barriers. So when is addressing the most important barrier enough, and when do several barriers need to be addressed together?

WHEN IS ONE MOTIVATIONAL PROCESS ENOUGH?

In experiments on congestion pricing with nearly 20,000 residents of New York and Washington, D.C., showing that the policy would work increased support by about 30%. Adding an argument about fairness provided little additional benefit: in this case, efficacy appeared to be the critical barrier.

But some collective goals depend on many actors and stages working together. In new research on intervention ensembles, strategically combining interventions that target complementary barriers can outperform any single approach. Most importantly, this advantage becomes larger when success itself requires coordination across multiple actors and institutions.

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS

  • 2026 - International Congress of Applied Psychology (Florence, Italy)

    Symposium talk: The Central Role of Governmental Efficacy Beliefs in Mobilizing Collective Action

  • 2025 - NYU Climate Initiative Conference (New York, NY)

    Panel discussion and invited talk: Mobilizing Collective Climate Action: A Large-Scale Study of 17 Behavioral Interventions in the U.S.

  • 2025 - Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Convention (Denver, CO)

    Symposium Talk: Behavioral Interventions for Collective Climate Action.

  • 2024 - Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Annual Convention (San Diego, CA)

    Symposium Talk: The Differential Impact of Climate Interventions along the Political Divide.

  • 2023 - International Conference on Environmental Psychology (ICEP) (Aarhus, Denmark)

    Symposium Talk: Cultural Individualism/Collectivism Moderates the Effects of Climate Action Interventions.

  • 2023 - NYU Psychology Department Social Speaker Series

    Talk: Political Ideology Differences in Responses to Climate Action Interventions.

SELECTED EXPERIENCE

COLLECTIVE COGNITION )
Stanford Climate Cognition Lab
PI: Dr. Madalina Vlasceanu

2019)
Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab
PI: Dr. Sander van der Linden

COLLECTIVE PRESENT)
NYU Center for Conflict and Cooperation
PI: Dr. Jay Van Bavel

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE FOR POLICY LAB (2021 - 202
Princeton Behavioral Science for Policy Lab
PI: Dr. Elke U. Weber

PROGRAM FOR ANXIET)
UM Program for Anxiety, Stress, & OCD
PI: Dr. Kiara Timpano

COLUMBIA COUPLES LAB (
Columbia Couples Lab
PI: Dr. Niall Bolger