Dr. Reed’s research entails the application of behavioral economics to areas of societal importance. His work specifically targets substance use, behavioral health risk factors, sustainability, and behavioral addictions through a behavioral economic lens of operant demand (extent to which organisms defend consumption of rewards amidst increasing costs) and discounting (extent to which rewards lose subjective value due to increased constraints such as delay or probability). He is an impressively productive early career investigator, with over 100 peer-reviewed papers in a wide range of publication outlets (over 50 of which have been published since 2015), over 50 paper presentations at regional and national conferences, including over 20 invited/plenary addresses. Dr. Reed’s translational interests have led to publications in many prestigious outlets outside of his behavior analytic discipline, underscoring the broad reach of his work and the broader scientific community’s interest in his research questions. For example, his work in cancer prevention and behavioral medicine has been published in prestigious health outlets such as Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and Preventive Medicine. His work in substance use has been published in prestigious addiction outlets such as Addiction, Psychopharmacology, and JAMA Psychiatry. Dr. Reed’s most notable research contributions are in operant behavioral economic demand. Specifically, his research in hypothetical purchase tasks has set the standard for the design and format of these procedures. Additionally, he works closely with Dr. Steven Hursh in advancing demand models and quantifying demand metrics. Dr. Reed’s behavioral economic expertise has resulted in numerous international collaborations and externally funded research. Specifically, Dr. Reed has served as an investigator for projects funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy, the FDA, and NIH. His expertise has also resulted in consultation and collaboration with various government agencies, including the Army Research Institute, NASA, and the National Research Energy Laboratory. His scholarly output was recently recognized via the 2016 B. F. Skinner New Researcher Award for Applied Research from Division 25 of the American Psychological Association.
He is a member of the American Psychological Association Teaching of Psychology in Secondary Schools Speakers Bureau and has given talks on behavior analysis to area high school classes. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal on the topic of crowdsourcing in behavioral research, his indoor tanning demand and taxation research was featured in a Forbes column, his research on decision making was featured in a Psychology Today column, and he has contributed to Skeptic Magazine. Dr. Reed has also appeared on the Behavioral Observations Podcast. In his previous position as Executive Director for the Society for the Quantitative Analyses of Behavior, he helped revitalize the society’s web presence and transferred the society’s tutorials to YouTube in an effort to broaden its public reach.
