Our research interests revolve around two major themes within the fields of social and cognitive psychology. One focuses on the core motives that drive social behavior. Inspired by perspectives in experimental existential psychology, we study how deep-seated existential concerns fuel people's efforts to make meaningful sense of the social world and their own lives. Click the 'jar' photo below to read more.

In addition to the "Why" of meaning-making, we focus on the "How" -- that is, what cognitive mechanisms make it possible. Using conceptual metaphor theory as a framework, we study how people use metaphors at a conceptual level to understand (and not just talk about) the abstractions of social life in terms of dissimilar things. Click the 'shadow' image below to read more.