Specialization
Focus of research
Sara Perlstein investigates how people make sense of their own health through a distinctly sociological lens. She is particularly fascinated by questions pertaining to trust, risk, and social norms. A key feature of Sara's work is a conviction that people are competent actors in their own lives and that conflicting priorities and limited resources are at the center of discrepancies between both expert knowledge vs. lay behavior and individual behavioral intentions vs. manifested behaviors.
Methodologically, Sara specializes in quantitative and computational methods and is particularly interested in methods that bridge the gap between quantitative generalizability and qualitative nuanced insights.
Sara is currently working on a project on shifting obesity framings in the Netherlands following the widespread proliferation of GLP-1 agonists as treatment for obesity.