Steven’s research uses microeconomic theory and controlled laboratory experiments to investigate how context, motivation and the social environment influence human cooperation. His published work has specifically examined how uncertainty about intentions can frustrate coordinated shifts to better practices, how the distribution of prosocial dispositions in society hinges on the prevalence of environments in which people are forced to compete, and how to think about the consequences of social fragmentation on wellbeing. Before joining the University of Reading in 2017, Steven was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for the World Economy in Kiel, Germany. He earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 2013.
