I will be reviewing PhD applications this cycle for Fall 2026 admission. For more information on the graduate program of psychology at the University of Toronto, please visit: https://www.psych.utoronto.ca/prospective-graduate-students/application-information. Applications are due December 1, 2025.

The ongoing work in our lab centers on three main lines of inquiry:

1. We explore how mutual understanding is achieved or disrupted in conversations, interactions, and other social contexts between individuals or groups. In particular, we are studying what makes people—particularly racial and sexual minority individuals—feel understood, and what behaviors promote such felt understanding.

2. We examine how abstract ideas and concrete experiences are connected and how they become disconnected, in various domains (e.g., attitudes, romantic attraction, morality, person perception). We often take a social cognitive approach to these questions and seek to answer them at both phenomenological (“what”) and mechanistic (“how”) levels.

3. We study ways that researchers can better use quantitative methods in realistic (and often messy) data scenarios. In particular, we focus on increasing statistical power (increasing probability of finding true effects), minimizing Type I error (reducing probability of finding “effects” that are not true), and structural equation modeling (a family of techniques that model complex relations among variables).

If you decide to apply to our lab, you may want to discuss your research interests in one or more of these themes in your application, or otherwise state why you think our lab would fit with and support your research interests. You should list my name among the faculty members you wish to work with in the application form (not just in your statements); otherwise, I will not receive your application.

To ensure a fair evaluation process, I will not respond at length to individual inquiries from prospective students prior to reading applications.