Cultural defaults—the thoughts, practices, and people perceived as typical, standard, and desirable—are central to shaping a society’s institutions and individual beliefs. Yet, despite being deeply rooted in daily life, cultural defaults can be overlooked as sources of intergroup tension. My research reveals how seemingly objective, neutral, and even positive cultural defaults contribute to real-world social problems.

I have studied: how cultural defaults contribute to racial wealth and homeownership gaps in the United States, how equity policies meant to improve outcomes for people from marginalized groups are less effective than intended because of underlying cultural defaults, and how individualism, a default cultural value in the U.S., contributes to gender segregation in U.S. degrees and occupations.

While I primarily test my theories using social psychological experiments and manipulations, I use a range of research methodologies (e.g., “big” observational datasets, qualitative coding) and draw on interdisciplinary insights across the social sciences to inform my theories.