Jeff Stein, Ph.D.
“More than half of all deaths are the result of lifestyle choices leading to chronic disease. These deaths are preventable — but how? We first need to understand why unhealthy behavior is so tempting.”
Using behavioral economics to understand and prevent lifestyle-related morbidity and mortality
What drives unhealthy behavior?
Behavioral economics provides a framework to understand the influence of various costs — including the time, money, and effort required to obtain an outcome — on a wide range of behaviors that impact health (e.g., poor diet, sedentary activity, substance use, medication nonadherence). Dr. Stein and his research team seek to both: (a) understand the behavioral economic processes that influence these health behaviors, and (b) target these decision-making processes to develop practical, highly disseminable interventions to prevent and treat disease. Recent and ongoing research projects include interventions to prevent and manage type 2 diabetes, improve medication adherence in breast cancer treatment, and increase public interest in obtaining clinical preventive services (e.g., cancer screening, vaccine use).
- Assistant Professor, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC
- Interim Co-director, Center for Health Behaviors Research
- Assistant Professor, Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
View Dr. Stein's complete National Library of Medicine bibliography
Vaughn, J. E., Ammermann, C., Lustberg, M., Bickel, W., & Stein, J.S. (in press). Delay discounting as a potential therapeutic target to improve adjuvant endocrine therapy adherence in hormone-receptor positive breast cancer. Health Psychology.
Epstein, L. H., Paluch, R. A., Stein, J. S., Quattrin, T., Mastrandrea, L. D., Bree, K. A., ... & Bickel, W. K. (2020). Delay discounting, glycemic regulation and health behaviors in adults with prediabetes. Behavioral Medicine, 1-11.
Bechara, A., Berridge, K. C., Bickel, W. K., Morón, J. A., Williams, S. B., & Stein, J. S. (2019). A neurobehavioral approach to addiction: implications for the opioid epidemic and the psychology of addiction. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 20(2), 96-127.
Stein, J. S., Heckman, B. W., Pope, D. A., Perry, E. S., Fong, G. T., Cummings, K. M., & Bickel, W. K. (2018). Delay discounting and e-cigarette use: An investigation in current, former, and never cigarette smokers. Drug and alcohol dependence, 191, 165-173.
Stein, J. S., Koffarnus, M. N., Stepanov, I., Hatsukami, D. K., & Bickel, W. K. (2018). Cigarette and e-liquid demand and substitution in e-cigarette-naïve smokers. Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology, 26(3), 233.
Stein, J. S., Wilson, A. G., Koffarnus, M. N., Daniel, T. O., Epstein, L. H., & Bickel, W. K. (2016). Unstuck in time: episodic future thinking reduces delay discounting and cigarette smoking. Psychopharmacology, 233(21), 3771-3778.
Stein, J. S., Johnson, P. S., Renda, C. R., Smits, R. R., Liston, K. J., Shahan, T. A., & Madden, G. J. (2013). Early and prolonged exposure to reward delay: effects on impulsive choice and alcohol self-administration in male rats. Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology, 21(2), 172.
Stein, J. S., & Madden, G. J. (2013). Delay discounting and drug abuse: Empirical, conceptual, and methodological considerations. In Mackillop, J., & de Wit, H. (Eds.). The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Addiction Psychopharmacology (pp. 165-208). Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford, UK.
- Utah State University: Ph.D., Psychology
- University of Kansas: M.A., Applied Behavioral Science
-
Article Item
Cancer prevention: Can future-focused thinking help smokers quit? , article Date: Jan 06, 2026 - -
Article Item
New online tool tests how taxes shape sugar-sweetened drink purchases , article Date: Apr 29, 2025 -
-
Article ItemResearchers find flavor restrictions affect tobacco buyers differently depending on socioeconomic status , article
Public policies intended to reduce harm might perpetuate health disparities in cigarette smoking, the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S., a study finds.
Date: Jun 06, 2024 - -
Article ItemFrom healthy development to cancer treatments, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute scientists aim for impact , article
New Seale Innovation Fund projects fuel a broad spectrum of research focused on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, stress, brain development, and more.
Date: Jan 29, 2024 - -
Article ItemResearchers link food insecurity, financial hardship during COVID-19 to trait associated with poor health choices , article
The Fralin Biomedical Research Institute study has implications for better understanding food choices and addictive disorders.
Date: Oct 05, 2023 - -
Article Item‘The real deal’: Students thrive and grow in summer hands-on research experiences , article
This was the seventh summer of programs aimed at engaging and training the next generation of scientists. This year, 34 students from colleges in Virginia, North Carolina, and as far away as California, and from five area high schools, participated in summer undergraduate research fellowship programs at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.
Date: Sep 20, 2023 - -
Article ItemState iTHRIV partnership awards $200,000 in pilot funds , article
The integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia, has awarded teams of physicians, researchers, veterinarians, and data scientists at Virginia Tech, Carilion Clinic, and the University of Virginia $200,000 in pilot funding. The funds will be used across four multi-institutional research projects to accelerate health breakthroughs in the fields of pediatrics, prenatal care, and cancer treatment.
Date: Dec 05, 2022 - -
Article ItemFralin Biomedical Research Institute expands Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program , article
More than 30 undergraduate and high school students worked behind the curtain of biomedical research this summer at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.
Date: Aug 16, 2022 - -
Article ItemMedical student connects smoking cessation, COPD, and delay discounting , article
Fourth-year medical student Kenan Michaels researched whether smokers diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease within the past five years would be more likely to have quit smoking since their diagnosis if they had lower rates of delay discounting, or how a person values future outcomes. His hypothesis was that patients who didn’t mind waiting for a reward were more likely to quit smoking.
Date: Mar 14, 2022 - -
Article ItemResearchers aim to improve diabetes management in rural and urban communities with low-cost intervention , article
Jeff Stein at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute has received a $990,000 National Institutes of Health grant to study the effects of applying a psychological treatment for addiction to help patients manage Type 2 diabetes.
Date: Dec 21, 2021 - -
Article ItemResearchers receive grant to study misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine , article
Researchers at Virginia Tech are looking into how social media misinformation influences people’s intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, especially those within the Appalachian region, with help from a grant funded by the Fralin Life Sciences Institute and the Data and Decisions Destination Area.
Date: Apr 01, 2021 - -
Article ItemCenter for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors selects projects to tackle lifestyle-related diseases , article
Collaborative teams of Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic investigators are exploring the consequences of destructive health behavior in people struggling with poor adherence to breast cancer treatment regimes, opioid dependence, and cardiovascular disease.
Date: Jan 04, 2019 - -
Article ItemVirginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists seek unfiltered truth about 'light' cigarettes , article
VTCRI scientists will focus on how ventilated filters on cigarettes, product packaging, and messaging have affected cigarette use, and also how alternative nicotine delivery systems — such as electronic cigarettes — can be used to modify smoking behavior.
Date: Mar 06, 2018 -
Recent Media Coverage
-
Redirect Item
-
Redirect ItemMedBoundTimes: Can Future-Focused Thinking Help Smokers Quit? , redirect Date: Jan 14, 2026 -
-
Redirect ItemNewswise: Can Future-Focused Thinking Help Smokers Quit? , redirect Date: Jan 12, 2026 -
-
Redirect Item
-
Redirect Item
-
Redirect Item
-
Redirect ItemACP Internist: Helping more patients quit smoking , redirect Date: Jun 01, 2022 -
-
Redirect Item
-
Redirect Item
-
Redirect Item
Page 1 of 2 | 14 Results