The Psychology of Forecasting, Politics, Consumer Behavior, and Morality
Clayton Critcher, Professor
Business, Haas School
Applications for Spring 2025 are closed for this project.
In my lab, we work on a variety of topics at the intersection of social psychology, judgment and decision making, and consumer behavior. Almost all questions are addressed with the use of behavioral experiments. At present, we are answering questions like the following:
*When do consumers defer to product-review star ratings versus go with their own intuitive preferences when deciding what to buy?
*Businesses treat their highest-value customers better than the rest of us all the time. When are we--the masses--OK with this, and when does it get under our skin?
*Most people think they are better than average on most dimensions, especially moral ones. But by definition, only about half of people are above average. It turns out that people tend to think any specific person--even someone they don't know--is better than average. Why are people so positive not just about the self, but about specific individuals?
*One intuitive way to bridge the partisan divide is to try to see what those on the other side see. We have been studying whether people can avoid partisan biases in distinguishing real news from fake news (people are often duped by positive fake news about their own party and negative fake news about the other side) by trying to guess whether those on the other side would see a specific headline encountered on social media as real or fake. Surprisingly, this intervention seems to have a backfiring, bias-promoting effect. We are trying to understand the dark side of perspective taking.
The common theme across our different lines of research is we identify psychologically relevant phenomena in the real world (in social, economic, moral, and political domains) and then dissect them in the laboratory to understand why they occur.
Most studies take place in lab space at the Haas School of Business, though we will have to be a bit more creative in terms of data collection (using online and nontraditional methods) in light of the current pandemic.
Role: Undergraduates will work directly with Professor Critcher. Students will help to generate ideas for research studies, will take part in meetings with Professor Critcher and other students, will coordinate and conduct research experiments, and will code and analyze data. Apprentices will learn how to apply the scientific method to answer basic questions in psychology and consumer behavior. Once URAPs have worked a full semester with Professor Critcher, they are eligible to attend lab meetings with other advanced URAPs, PhD students, and faculty.
Qualifications: Priority will be given to students who have interests in or experience with social psychology and/or judgment and decision making. Basic familiarity with research design is a plus, but is not required. Students must be highly disciplined, detail-oriented, well-organized, and highly conscientious.
Hours: 9-11 hrs
Related website: http://claytoncritcher.squarespace.com
Related website: https://haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/critcher-clayton/