Judgment and Decision Making
Ellen Evers, Professor
Marketing
Applications for Spring 2024 are closed for this project.
Our lab's research combines cognitive/social psychology, behavioral economics, and judgment and decision making research. Most of our research involves carrying out online or in-person experiments designed to test a hypothesis about human decision-making. Accepted students will work on a variety of projects within this area.
Examples of some of our projects include:
- Hedging risk: Why do people seem to spend too much to insure themselves against unlikely bad outcomes, and too little to insure themselves against likely ones?
- Memories for sale: What psychological and social factors influence consumers' decisions when purchasing souvenirs and choosing gifts for others?
- Overestimating probabilities: Do people undervalue sets of opportunities with a low chance of success per opportunity, relative to sets of opportunities with a higher chance of success per opportunity?
- Preference of risky options: Do people prefer any gamble that has a high chance of success, even if it has a really small prize?
Topics are subject to change, and additional topics may be added over the course of the semester.
Role: Accepted students will work on developing materials for studies, carrying out the studies by running participants through them, finding relevant literature, and/or analyzing their data. We also expect to have weekly lab meetings, with instruction on the above.
Qualifications: Interested in psychology and decision making, responsible, and willing to learn. We do not require prior psychology research experience to apply. Our work involves a wide range of different activities, so a wide range of backgrounds can be useful.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Kristine Cho, Graduate Student
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Social Sciences Education, Cognition & Psychology