The last decade or so my research has focused on motivated reasoning – the tendency for pre-existing views to motivate us to reach certain conclusions in advance, regardless of what the evidence says. I have primarily examined this process of making evaluations based on their desirability to us, rather than what information accurately reflects, in the context of food choices, specifically eating meat. How is it that meat eaters are able to continue their behavior given its increasingly clear harm to the environment and to personal health and certainly its harm to animals? Stated differently, we love animals yet most of us continue to eat them! How do we psychologically resolve this so-called meat paradox?
My research has been published in journals such as Perspectives on Psychological Science, Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, Social Psychological & Personality Science, Appetite, Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, British Journal of Social Psychology, Social & Personality Psychology Compass, Psychology of Men & Masculinity, Sex Roles, Food Quality & Preference, Group Processes & Intergroup Relations and Anthrozoos. My work has been covered by NBC News, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Associated Press, Scientific American, Huffington Post, USA Today, Yahoo News, NY Post, Daily Beast, Daily Mail, Psychology Today, and The British Psychological Society along with blogs and international newspapers.
I am a Professor of Psychology at Bellarmine University and live in Louisville, KY with my wife and children.