I am interested in the cognitive bases of communication and cultural evolution. In my PhD, I focus on how reputation management influences speakers’ linguistic choices and listeners expectations of those choices.
Do speakers frame their assertions more cautiously when the reputational stakes of being found wrong are higher? And when the stakes are low, do they choose more confident frames for higher persuasiveness? Do listeners also consider these stakes in their attributions of speaker accountability and evidence? Does a reputational pressure, favoring a preference for accountability deflation, shape grammatical evidential systems during their learning or their communication?
Qualification
MPhil Tibetan and Himalayan Studies, University of Oxford
MA Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh
Supervisor
Christophe Heintz
