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Researcher spotlight #21 – Brandi S. Morris

In this edition of the spotlight, Brandi S. Morris tells us about her background and research

Hi Brandi, what is your background and job role at AU?

Born and raised in southern California but spent many formative years in Denmark. I hold a degree in Cand.Merc. Marketing and HA-Int (English & French), and I am a PhD Candidate here at Aarhus University.

What are your main areas of research?

My research draws on work from psychology, neuroscience, and marketing communication to understand how stories influence emotion, risk perception, and behavior. As a PhD my main goal has been to investigate these mechanisms in the context of climate change but I'm particularly intrigued with how values, identity, and social affiliation influence the way people assimilate information in different types of situations. 

My collaborators include a range of scientists doing research in neuroscience and psychology, to marketing and climate change communication. I am affiliated with the Yale Program for Climate Change Communication and the Interacting Minds Centre at AU.

Are you involved with any teaching at the moment?

I finished my required teaching in 2018 but am guest lecturing for a few different courses.

How did you hear about Cognition and Behavior Lab?

One of my PhD advisors told me about it when I was putting together my research proposal. 

Have you used the Lab? If so, what are the benefits for researchers?

I have used COBE to conduct behavioral studies about communication influences behavior. There are so many benefits to using the lab and we are very fortunate to have such a well-equipped facility at our own department. 

There is extensive inter-disciplinary work on public opinion and perception of climate change. My own research questions relate to how these views, perceptions, and behavior are influenced by the structure and underlying mechanisms of the types of narratives we deploy. I was less interested in what people say and say they do, and more interested in what they actually do after exposure to a communication treatment. Lab experiments were the best way to study these mechanisms because I could observe, not only behavior, but also physiologic response. COBE has equipment to measure autonomic nervous system reactivity indicative of attention and emotional arousal. Together with behavioral measures, these more 'objective' indicators of arousal are interesting and insightful ways of studying the causal effect of a treatment. Of course, the findings of lab studies should ideally be followed up by field studies to confirm whether the findings replicate outside of a controlled environment.

Is there a particular recommendation you would like to pass on to other researchers? Something you wish you had known before you started, or just a useful trick.

Hmmm...run lots of small pilots to fine-tune your experimental protocols prior to the main study. There are many things that you just can't anticipate until you see how participants react to what you are asking them to do. It's much better to discover these in small trials rather than launching a full-blown study and discovering kinks along the way. Allow WAY more time than you think for setting up the 'real' experiment and for revisions, if necessary. The IRB, protocol development, it all takes more time than you think. Give yourself a buffer. That said, don't wait until things are 'perfect' to get started. You learn by doing. 

Also – make sure to spend your time on research questions that matter. This is very important to me as I feel we have a real responsibility to steward tax money/research funds in a way that benefits society and has real-world impact.

Could you recommend one academic book to fellow colleagues that you think is of great interest?

Hmmm... academic book... JUST ONE?! That's like asking Santa to pick his favorite elf ;-) Three that have seriously influenced my own thinking and research: 'Switch' (Chip and Dan Heath), 'Predictably Irrational' (Dan Ariely) and 'Thinking: Fast & Slow' (Daniel Kahneman). 

Away from your research, what do you enjoy doing?

Ask anyone who knows me, they will tell you that I'm kind of hopelessly and insatiably curious about many things... health, culinary arts, politics, all kinds of science. I like to dance and walk for hours upon hours in nature. My favorite activity of all is grovhygge with family and friends.

Finally, which Associated Researcher would you like to see under 'Spotlight' next time?

Erik Stoltenberg Lahm