Father (to twins), spouse (to an amazing partner in all things), professor (@DukeU), scientist (decision science, neuroeconomics), author, mentor.

Duke University
Joined July 2021
Excellent advice on effectively conveying your experiences in interviews... When you give examples, present the narrative arc: set up the situation, introduce the tension, describe the action you took, and explain the resolution... insidehighered.com/advice/20…
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Only ~55% support mandates. Why? Vaccines are described like seatbelts or motorcycle helmets -- they prevent harm to self -- but we need to reframe them as more like DUI laws, which ~100% support. Vaccines help prevent you from harming others. cnn.com/2021/09/13/politics/…
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I love the description of prospect theory as a "coordination device"!
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I'm recruiting for two new positions: Postdoctoral Fellow (academicjobsonline.org/ajo/j…) and Lab Manager (academicjobsonline.org/ajo/j…)! Please forward to folks looking for such positions and/or repost -- these are great opportunities for those interested in decision making & neuroscience.
This is a really important lesson for messaging about COVID risk... We should think not about the existing populations of vaccinated/non-vaccinated, but the delta in risk following vaccination. Some news sources are starting to move in that direction, fortunately.
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I really don't understand the algorithms for conference spam emails. I just got one asking me to present on an article from 10 years ago... why would someone write a scraping algorithm that doesn't actually pick recent articles? I feel like trying to help them to fraud better.
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Yesterday, I announced in class that "office hours will be held over Zoom" and the students started nodding enthusiastically. Unexpected pandemic lesson: Many students really like Zoom office hours -- a low barrier to hop on and ask a question and no traipsing across campus.
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Back on campus teaching today... it's been 537 days since I last gave a talk or led a class while wearing shoes.
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Remember re vaccination: The goal isn't to change minds, but to change behavior. To holdouts: "Look, you waited until full approval. That shows you're a careful person... and now's the right time to get the vaccine." This is a critical time. arstechnica.com/science/2021…
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This thread provides wonderful (and laudable) insight into the scientific process, the value of open data, and the importance of (self-)skepticism. @ProfLisaShu deserves kudos for her openness and honesty. My lab will discuss what we can learn from this at our next meeting.
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New paper led by @ne_blankenstein and @RosasBrain that tries to understand the (often challenging!) literature on the development of decision making under conditions of economic ambiguity!
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Why public libraries are awesome. I wouldn't be surprised if investing in expanded access to libraries would have the highest ROI of any public good.
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Glad to share the wonderful book cover with generous quote from Daniel Kahneman. Thanks to many others, and of course inspired by @R_Thaler and @CassSunstein Thanks as well to @riverheadbooks for the design and title help! @penguinrandom on sale Oct. 5th.
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Whenever I explained to someone why we need behavioral/decision science, I used examples about investing, gambling, etc. From now on, I think that I'll talk about folks declining the COVID vaccine in favor of an antiparasitic drug given to animals. salon.com/2021/08/09/how-ant…
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Vicki Lee's new paper "The hidden cost of humanization: Individuating information reduces prosocial behavior toward in-group members" (w/Rachel Kranton, Piero Conzo, and me) is now out in the Journal of Economic Psychology! 1/N authors.elsevier.com/a/1dXjL…
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The results hold for Dictator, Third-Party Punishment, and Trust games -- and are robust to controls for beliefs, personal relatability of the preference statements, etc. 4/N
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All tasks, analysis scripts, and data are available via osf.io/623c4/ . 5/5
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In the Nature Portfolio Behavioural & Social Sciences community, author @drnikkisullivan helps us find answers to why it’s difficult for so many of us to make healthy choices. #BehindThePaper go.nature.com/3l30wP1
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