Nathan Cheek, Ph.D.

Bio

Nathan Cheek is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Policy from Princeton University in 2021.

Dr. Cheek directs the Choice, Inequality, and Policy (CHIP) Lab and collaborates with lab members to investigate a variety of topics at the intersection of social cognition and judgment and decision making. Dr. Cheek is particularly interested in understanding how biased beliefs drive the neglect and mistreatment of those already facing marginalization and other disadvantages (e.g., people in poverty).Dr. Cheek also studies how people make sense of their choices, including how context, from the immediate choice environment to broader cultural norms and values, shapes how people interpret the meaning of their choices, the goals people adopt during choice, and people’s subjective experiences during and after choice. Fitting with the interdisciplinarity of the SDOS area, Dr. Cheek’s lab draws on perspectives from social psychology, decision science, and organizational behavior research, as well as from allied fields like sociology and consumer research.

Dr. Cheek received the SAGE Emerging Scholar Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and the Innovations in Existential Psychology Research Award from the International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology, and his research has been supported by organizations including the National Science Foundation, the Overdeck Family Foundation, and Meta. More information can be found at: www.natecheek.com