Research
We show the work.
We study how people talk, argue and make up their minds, and we publish what we find with the data. Every estimate with its interval.
What we study
Six questions about how people decide.
We work in three disciplines on one subject: how people talk, argue and make up their minds.
Conversation modeling
Who said what, to whom, and what it changed. We model conversations as they unfold, from the words on the page to the people in the room.
Systems engineering
The machinery under every reading: language-based controls from the web to the server, built to give the same answer every time, on less compute.
Interaction design
How design, media and cues steer what people do, and how to build interfaces that sharpen a person's thinking instead of doing it for them.
Point at a question to see what we look for.
Reasoning
How people weigh a claim against the facts.
1 student paper
Persuasion
Who an argument wins over, and why.
3 student papers
Attention
What noise costs people, and who ends up paying.
2 student papers
Metacognition
How people think about their own thinking.
Write the first paper.
Interaction
How design, media and cues steer what we do.
2 student papers
Engagement
Which clicks are real, and what people recall.
2 student papers
The instrument
Labels were the ceiling.
Aristotle named ethos, pathos, logos and kairos. Two thousand years later, Robert Cialdini named six principles of influence. A label tells you a lever is present; it cannot say how hard it presses, on whom, or when. Fields stall at the label stage until an instrument arrives.
- SignalThe message, in order: text by position, audio by time, video by frame.
- Rhetorical MassHow much was said: claims, entities, structure, fallacies. The same text always gives the same mass.
- Persuasive VelocityHow well it was said, across eight channels, down to leaves that each carry a score and its reasons.
- Momentum and forceWhat moved. Force is what it takes to change the course of a conversation.
- The personaWho is listening: who they are, what moves them, their state of mind, their setting.
- Persuasive ResonanceDid it land? Four probabilities, one person, one message, one moment.
What sets it apart
Persuasive Resonance
Did it land? One person, one message, one moment: four probabilities that always sum to one.
See a readoutStateful Personas
A persona that remembers. Who is listening carries from one message to the next: who they are, what moves them, their state of mind and their setting.
Configure one in the interactive demoObjective-based Scoring
Every score is computed against a goal someone stated, so a number always answers a question: better at what, and for whom.
Persuasive Velocity
Eight channels.
How well something was said, read on eight channels, each down to leaves that carry a score and their reasons.
Persuasive Resonance
Did it land?
At the top of the instrument a message meets a person, and the readout reports four probabilities that always sum to one.
An illustration, not a result. Every number in a real readout carries its stated reasons, and every score is computed against a goal someone stated.
persuasion.wiki
Every term we measure, defined.
The persuasion ontology: every term Pulp uses to measure persuasion, defined in real and plain words, with how each one connects to the others.
What we're finishing
Three papers nearly done, and the models underneath.
Implementing
Valid results from AI responses
We pair AI responses with a smaller human sample, so the estimate stays unbiased. A peer-reviewed method from 2026, new to our work.
Building
Graph neural network foundations
Models that learn from who talks to whom: the base our machine learning builds on.
Finalizing
Persuasive resonance
How closely a message fits the person hearing it.
Finalizing
Persuasive force
How hard an argument pushes, and what it moves.
Finalizing
Stateful persona models
Personas that remember, from one message to the next.
The record
Where the work has been.
Seminars, roundtables and classes. Invite us, and we bring the data.
- American Society of Criminology
Coming up
Annual meeting, Chicago, November 2026: new social media research, a companion to our fentanyl policy roundtable. - American Sociological Association
Presented
2026 roundtable: fentanyl policy and the election cycle. - University of Florida
Given
Seminars. - Emory University, MSBA program
Given
A speaking event. - INFORMS
Accepted
2026 Annual Meeting.
Data stories