HOPE Lab Members

Principal Investigators

Emma Levine

Emma Levine is a Professor of Behavioral Science and Charles E. Merrill faculty scholar at the Booth School of Business. She studies the psychology of altruism, trust, and ethical dilemmas with the goal of understanding how individuals make trade-offs between different values, and how these trade-offs influence decision-making and social perception.

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Jane Risen

Jane Risen is the H.G.B. Alexander Professor of Behavioral Science at the Booth School of Business. She is interested in how people form judgments to help them negotiate our complicated, uncertain world. When does reason or intuition have the upper hand in influencing judgment and behavior, and when do the two work in tandem? How do motivational goals and cognitive processes independently and interdependently influence judgment? Her research focuses on topics including intuitive belief, magical thinking, rituals, stereotyping and prejudice, and connecting across lines of difference. She teaches “Diversity in Organizations” and is excited for her research to connect even more to topics relevant for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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Erika Kirgios

Erika Kirgios is an incoming Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at the Booth School of Business. In her research, Erika explores the decision-making biases that underlie inequality and designs interventions to improve outcomes for women and racial minorities and to increase prosocial behavior more broadly. She also studies the strategic choices people make in the face of anticipated discrimination.

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Shereen Chaudhry

Shereen Chaudhry is an Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science and Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow. She studies how people navigate social interactions and relationships with others by examining patterns in how people use language and speech acts when they communicate with one another. In some cases, she applies the lens of game theory to better understand how people subtly coordinate (or fail to coordinate) in conversations. She is interested in the downstream consequences these behaviors have in contexts important for organizations like conflict management, negotiations, teamwork, and customer satisfaction.

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Post-Doctoral Researchers

Laura Wallace

Laura Wallace is a Principal Researcher at Booth Business School. To understand the mechanisms underlying social change, her research program integrates the traditions of attitudes/persuasion, social cognition, social motivation, and intergroup relations. Her work centers on three major questions: 1) When and how do people change their minds?, 2) When will people act in alignment with their beliefs?, 3) How can organizations foster inclusion and inspiration?

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Graduate Students

Yena Kim

Yena Kim is a Behavioral Science PhD student at the Booth School of Business. Using diverse research methods, both in-lab and out in the field, she studies how people navigate moments of growth and failure. In particular, she is interested in the role of interpersonal communication in managing others’ growth.

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Nicholas Owsley

Nicholas Owsley is a Behavioral Science PhD student at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is broadly interested in judgment and decision making and social cognition, with specific interest in prosocial decision-making, discrimination, and the application of moral frameworks to decisions.

Graelin Mandel

Graelin is a Behavioral Science PhD student at Chicago Booth. She graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in the Joseph Wharton Scholars Program. She is interested in positive behavior change strategies, and work motivation and success. A key focus is how environments – digital, social, and physical – can help build and sustain motivation and effort over time in individuals, workers, and consumers.

Ibitayo Fadayomi

Tayo (Tie-yoe) is a PhD student in Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He graduated from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining Booth, Tayo served as the lab manager for Columbia Business School’s Center for Decision Sciences. Tayo aims to uncover when, where, and how behavioral interventions and strategies can be most effective, especially for marginalized populations. Central to these interests are questions relating to behavior change, motivation, identity, and discrimination. He looks to explore these using various research methods including online, lab, and field studies.

Felicia Joy

Felicia (Fuh-lee-see-uh) Joy is a joint PhD student in Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She is also a doctoral research fellow in the Workplace Intelligence group at Nike. Prior to doctoral studies, she graduated from Harvard with a master’s in behavioral science. Felicia’s broad research interest is quality of life with specific lines of research covering motivation to work, strategies for cooperation, workplace culture, and behavior change. One of her primary research objectives is to develop a new generalizable measure of quality of life so it can be quantified and compared across communities and contexts. She co-teaches two MBA courses at Booth in the strategy section and is co-author of the forthcoming book, I Don’t Just Work Here: The New Purpose of Workplace Culture.

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Roman Gallardo

Roman A. Gallardo is a PhD student of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Roman is broadly interested in intergroup relations, with a focus on stigmatized groups. More specifically, Roman has three lines of interests: the predictors of prejudice and discrimination, why and how group disparities persist, and the psychological factors underlying intergroup conflict.

Nich DiMaggio

Nich DiMaggio is a PhD student of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Nich is broadly interested in socioecology with a focus on moral psychology. Nich’s work examines questions like “what effect do weather emergencies have on voting behavior” and “how do groups define morality differently”.

Masters Students

Anita Ding

Anita Ding is a Master’s student at the University of Chicago Division of Social Sciences concentrating in Psychology. She holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Toronto. She is broadly interested in organizational diversity, discrimination, decision-making, and behavioral change. Specifically, she studies how organizations can foster inclusive environments for underrepresented groups.

Lab Managers

Eva Chen

Eva Chen is a Pre-doctoral Research Professional at Booth School of Business. She is broadly interested in judgment and decision making. Her current projects explore responsibility division in interpersonal relationships and team failure, as well as ways to shape people’s mental representations to affect their budgeting behaviors.

Ryan Bruno

Ryan Bruno is a HOPE Lab Manager and holds a B.S. in Neuroscience from DePaul University. He also works as a Research Professional for Emma Levine and Jane Risen. He is interested broadly in how we can form accurate beliefs about the world, and why we often fail to do so. He is particularly interested in the psychology of unfounded beliefs, dishonesty, and how our beliefs influence ethical decision making.

Austin Smith

Austin Smith is a HOPE lab manager and holds a B.A. in Psychology with a Minor in Cognitive Science from the University of Pennsylvania. He is interested in behavior change, judgment and decision-making, and moral psychology. He also works as a Research Professional for Dr. Erika Kirgios and Dr. Alex Koch.

Research Assistants

Ria Dhillon

Ria Dhillon is an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Alumni

Former Post Docs

Justin Landy

Justin F. Landy is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Nova Southeastern University. His research is at the intersection of social and cognitive psychology, and primarily concerns the nature of moral judgment, especially as it relates to reasoning, emotion, and social cognition. His work has been published in journals including Perspectives on Psychological Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Cognition, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, and Psychological Bulletin, and his paper “Does incidental disgust amplify moral judgment? A meta-analytic review of experimental evidence” received an award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology for outstanding research conducted by a graduate student. When he is not working, he enjoys cooking, trivia games, and cheering for the Baltimore Ravens.

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Former PhD Students

Alexander Moore

Alexander K. Moore received his PhD in Behavioral Science at the University Of Chicago Booth School of Business. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Chicago. He is broadly interested in the ways that stated rules and policies impact judgment, decision making, and motivation, as well as the ways that people look for products and information, particularly on the internet. Alexander currently is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Illinois Chicago.

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Samantha Kassirer

Samantha Kassirer is a Doctoral Candidate in Management & Organizations at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Samantha studies morality, ethics, and charitable behavior. Specifically, her work explores the psychological process of moralization, (effective) charitable giving, and recipients’ reactions to help.

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Annabelle Roberts

Annabelle Roberts received PhD in behavioral science from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She studies judgment and decision making in the context of consumer behavior, with a focus on motivation and self-control. In her research, she explores what leads people to make more patient decisions and feel more patient while waiting. She also studies the consequences of self-disclosure, and aims to provide insight on how people can share sensitive information with others in a way that increases trust and reduces negative judgments. Annabelle currently is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business.

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Kristina Wald

Kristina Wald is a postdoc and lecturer at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She is a former PhD student in Behavioral Science at Chicago Booth, and received her bachelor’s degree in psychology and economics from Columbia University. Broadly, she studies interpersonal dynamics, such as impression management, trust, and communication.

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Nicholas Herzog

Nicholas Herzog is a Marketing PhD student at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is interested in judgment and decision making, consumer behavior, and ethics. His research on ethics explores when and why people prefer discretion to strict rule following in the moral domain.

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David Munguia Gomez

David M. Munguia Gomez received his PhD student in Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Princeton University. He is broadly interested in the psychology of policy-making, fairness, and causal attribution. David currently is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management.

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Elizabeth Huppert

Elizabeth Huppert received her PhD in the joint program in Psychology and Business at the University of Chicago and Booth School of Business. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and classics from Bowdoin College and two master’s degrees from the University of Chicago (MA in Social Sciences and MA in Psychology). Elizabeth is broadly interested in moral decision making with a particular focus on judgments related to moral hypocrisy, fairness, and honesty. Elizabeth is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Dispute Resolution Research Center (DRRC) at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

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Former Masters Students

Sarah Jensen

Sarah Jensen is a PhD student in Management at the David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah. She was formerly a lab manager in the Center for Decision Research and holds an MA in Social Science from the University of Chicago as well as a BA in Psychology and French from St. Norbert College. Sarah is broadly interested in moral judgments, prosocial behavior, and decision-making.

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Raye Zhu

Former Research Professionals

Michael White

Mike White is a former HOPE Lab manager and current Organizational Behavior PhD student at Columbia Business School. He is interested in prosocial behavior, and his research seeks to understand what prompts acts of good and bad towards those we believe are similar or different from ourselves. He also uses insights from psychophysiology and biology to understand how these experiences get under the skin and impact health.

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Solomon Lister

Solomon Lister is a former HOPE Lab manager, and holds a B.A. in Psychology & Minor in Philosophy from the University of Chicago. Solomon is broadly interested in judgment and decision making, cognitive biases and heuristics, and morality in the context of social cognition, with a specific focus on lying and deception. Solomon currently works as a Practice & TMS Coordinator at Union Square Practice in New York City.

Jordyn Schor

Jordyn Schor is a former HOPE lab manager and holds a B.A. in Psychology and Minor in Statistics from the University of Pennsylvania. She is interested in moral judgment, prosocial behavior, and behavioral economics. She also worked as a Research Professional for Dr. Dan Bartels and Dr. Shereen Chaudhry. Jordyn currently is an analyst at Galileo Life Sciences.

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Former Research Assistants

Stacia King

Stacia is a former HOPE lab RA, and a current Ph.D. student in Stanford University’s social psychology department. She is a proud alumna of Howard University, where she earned Bachelors of Science in Psychology and Mathematics. Her current research interests include conflict resolution in parties with unequal power dynamics, punishment and misconceptions we have about it, and transformative alternatives.

Emily Cheng

Emily Cheng is an undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and Language. Her research interests include the social consequences of ethical dilemmas, as well as decision-making and prosocial behavior.

Emma Friedman

Emma received her BA from Northwestern University and obtained a Master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin. She then matriculated at a PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her involvement with the lab, Emma was a student in University of Chicago’s Medical Writing and Editing Program and worked at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She comes from a diverse research background including molecular pharmacology, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy.

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