Before arriving at Princeton, she was an Academy Fellow at Harvard University. She received her PhD from Yale University in Social Psychology. Her research examines conflict reduction and political behavior, using large-scale field experiments in the United States and in Central and Horn of Africa. She is an affiliate of the Experiments on Governance and Politics research network and the Households in Conflict Network, and is the recipient of a Harry Frank Guggenheim grant. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Social Issues, and the Annual Review of Psychology.