Selected Projects

The Problem People deeply convinced about what is good and what is evil can become devoted actors, in the double sense that they embrace sacred values that are utterly nonnegotiable, and they experience fusion between their personal identity and a group to which they belong. As devoted actors, they experience an assault upon their group as a personal attack, triggering evolutionarily stabilized self-protective instincts that extend to protecting their group and its members. They also

The Problem In some communities in the United States, just getting to and from school poses a complex optimization challenge that thousands of children need to solve every day. Children who need to walk to school want to take the short route, but they instinctively avoid danger zones: parts of their neighborhood where shootings occurred recently, or where they are likely to encounter people who might become involved in shootings. This is a problem our

Dental caries in primary (baby) teeth is the most common chronic childhood disease—especially in underserved communities. Despite its preventability, early tooth decay leads to long-term health disparities, school absences, and financial burden on families and public health systems. Public health agencies know that changing parental behavior can have impact—but until now, they’ve lacked data-driven tools to know which behaviors to target, and how to allocate limited resources effectively.