Matthew Ryan Sisco

Behavioral Data Scientist

I am a highly effective data scientist with expertise in machine learning, data engineering, statistical modeling, natural language processing, survey methods, and experimental design. As an industry data scientist I have experience in the domains of media analysis and financial data science.

I previously worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the Behavioral Science for Policy Lab at Princeton University. I completed my PhD in quantitative psychology at Columbia University with a specialization in data science as an IGERT fellow with the computer science department. I am an affiliate scientist at the European Institute on Economics and the Environment (EIEE).

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Sisco, M.R., Constantino, S., Gao, Y., Tavoni, M., Cooperman, A., Bosetti, V., & Weber, E.U. (2022). Examining evidence for the Finite Pool of Worry and Finite Pool of Attention hypotheses. Global Environmental Change. [Blitz talk], [PDF]

Sisco, M.R. & Weber, E.U. (2022). Local temperature anomalies increase climate policy interest and support: Analysis of internet searches and US congressional vote shares. Global Environmental Change. [PDF]

Sisco, M.R. (2021). A review of the effects of weather experiences on climate change attitudes and behaviors. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 52, 111-117. [PDF]

Sisco, M.R., Pianta, S., Weber, E.U., & Bosetti, V. (2021). Global climate strikes sharply raise attention to climate change: Analysis of climate search behavior in 46 countries. Journal of Environmental Psychology 75, 101596. [PDF]

Emmerling, J., Navarro, P., & Sisco, M.R. (2021). Subjective well-being - empirical determinants and simulation results for the shared socioeconomic pathways. Social Indicators Research, 1-30. [PDF]

Pianta, S. & Sisco, M.R. (2020). A hot topic in hot times: how media coverage of climate change is affected by temperature abnormalities. Environmental Research Letters, 15 (11). [PDF]

O'Garra, T. & Sisco, M.R. (2020). The Effect of Anchors and Social Information on Behaviour. PLOS ONE, 15 (4). [PDF]

Sisco, M.R., & Weber, E.U. (2019). Examining charitable giving in real-world online donations. Nature Communications, 10. [PDF]

Sisco, M.R., Bosetti, V. & Weber, E.U. (2017). When do weather events generate attention to climate change? Climatic Change, 143 (1-2), 227-241. doi:10.1007/s10584-017-1984-2. [PDF]

Gong, M., Lempert, R., Parker, A., Mayer, L. A., Fischbach, J., Sisco, M.R., Mao, Z., Krantz, D.H. & Kunreuther, H. (2017). Testing the scenario hypothesis: An experimental comparison of scenarios and forecasts for decision support in a complex decision environment. Environmental Modelling & Software, 91, 135-155. [PDF]

Papers Under Review

Hernandez Carballo, I. & Sisco, M.R. (2023). Examining the effects of gasoline prices on public support for climate policies. Under review at Nature Energy.

Working Papers

Sisco, M.R. & Weber, E.U. (2023). Evaluating computational methods to automatically detect emotions in text. In preparation.

Teaching

I have experience teaching introductory statistics and graduate level statistics for behavioral science.

In 2020, I developed a new course for Columbia University titled Behavioral Data Science. See the syllabus, lab assignment examples [1][2][3], student reviews [here] and a mini-lecture for more information.