I am working toward a Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Miami, where I am a member of the Evolution and Human Behavior Laboratory. My overarching interest is in identifying default tendencies in social behavior, documenting how they arise, and  studying when people override them to adjust to novel situations. I have primarily applied this interest to the domain of prosocial behavior, of which any one instance can be attributed to either enlightened self-interest or an internalized preference to benefit others. Studying whether default tendencies to benefit others reflect self-interested or other-interested motives can help explain prosocial behavior in both everyday situations and situations with atypical incentive structures. 

Find me on twitter at @w_mcauliffe