What We Study
Belief Formation
and Updating
We investigate how people develop and update beliefs, including when belief updating becomes biased or resistant to change. This research examines belief polarization, rational vs. biased reasoning, and belief systems dynamics in clinical, social, and everyday settings.
Mechanisms of Placebo and Expectation Effects
We study how expectations are shaped and how they influence perception and physiology, with a focus on pain and health-related outcomes. We explore placebo effects, predictive processing mechanisms, attributions, and how expectations can be harnessed for clinical benefit.
Personalized Placebo and Belief Interventions
We study individual differences in expectation and placebo effects, and develop personalized interventions that adapt treatment and disease framing and contextual cues to individual characteristics and beliefs, to leverage placebo effects and enhance therapeutic outcomes.
Open, Reproducible, and Collaborative Science
We are committed to making science more transparent, credible, and collaborative. We lead and contribute to large-scale collaborations on the topic. Our lab culture fosters critical thinking, respectful collaboration, and transparency—inside and outside the lab.