These are the core questions that motivate much of my research, whether that research involves tracking participants’ eye movements as they inspect a cabinet of morbid items or measuring their heart rate as they fight their way through a haunted house.

Most of my current research looks at how and why people sometimes find enjoyment - and can perhaps learn something - from fictionally dangerous scenarios. From this perspective, I’ve been pioneering the psychological study of morbid curiosity. More broadly, however, I am interested in the functions of emotions and the social, cognitive, and biological factors that influence social behavior.