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Mentor Areas

My intellectual affinities lie at the border between philosophy, game theory and psychology. My primary research focus is on judgment and decision making with special interest in decisions about fairness, trust, and cooperation, and how expectations affect behavior. A second research focus examines the nature and evolution of social norms, how to measure norms and what strategies to adopt to foster social change. This research is more applied, and forms the core of the newly created Penn Center for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics (CSNBD). A third, earlier research focus has been the epistemic foundations of game theory and how changes in information affects rational choices and solutions.

Description:

Do you want to learn more about why people do the things they do? And how changing people's behavior can have a lasting impact in a wide range of policy and industry outcomes? Come support the work of the CSNBD! We provide specialized research, consulting and training services to organizations around the world attempting to positively impact human behavior.

We currently have two new exciting projects in which we're welcoming students to support research tasks: one looking into the social and behavioral dimensions of poverty in the US, and another looking at compliance with risk-reduction recommendations with an insurance company.

Preferred Qualifications

Interest in research and willingness to dedicate a few hours per week to the project. Basic research skills are also preferred.

Project Website

Learn more about the researcher and/or the project here.
Penn Center for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics

Details:

Preferred Student Year

First-year, Second-Year, Junior, Senior

Academic Term

Fall, Spring, Summer

I prefer to have students start during the above term(s).

Volunteer

Yes

Yes indicates that faculty are open to volunteers.

Paid

No

Yes indicates that faculty are open to paying students they engage in their research, regardless of their work-study eligibility.

Work Study

No

Yes indicates that faculty are open to hiring work-study-eligible students.

Researcher


S. J. Patterson Harvie Professor of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics