Psychology 2553r: Decision Making and Negotiation Research Seminar

Harvard undergraduates interested in research related to behavioral decision making and negotiation may be good candidates for my laboratory course - Psychology 2553r: Decision Making and Negotiation Research Seminar. This seminar is offered each spring and fall, and there are no prerequisites for the class besides enthusiasm. Students enrolled in Psych 2553r will work closely with one of the members of my lab group (see bios below) on one or more research projects. Students in this course are expected to put in about 10 hours of work per week.

Signing Up

If you are interested in signing up for Psychology 2553r, you should e-mail me or one or more of the members of my lab group (see below) whose research sounds interesting to you. We will be happy to tell you more about opportunities to work with us for Psychology 2553r credit.

Lab Members

John Beshears Post-Doctoral Fellow National Bureau of Economic Research Email: beshears@nber.org	My research focuses on how people make savings and investment decisions. For example, one of my current projects examines how individuals adjust their savings decisions in response to information about the savings decisions of their peers For more information on my research please visit my website: http://kuznets.fas.harvard.edu/~beshears/
Luke Coffman 5th Year Ph.D. Student in Business Economics Email: lcoffman@hbs.edu	I will be running various experiments this semester. In the lab, I will be continuing to pursue an understanding of how moral judgments and punishments are made in economic contexts. In the field, I will be undertaking three projects. In Brazil, we are working with the school system to understand who makes the schooling decision, child or parent. In Switzerland, we will be offering cognitive training to students to see how it affects outcomes. In Mexico, we are interested in identifying psychological factors in loan repayment. For more information on my research please visit my website: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~coffman/
Sreedhari D. Desai Graduate Research Fellow Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School sdesai@law.harvard.edu	My research investigates how individuals behave in organizations, with a focus on ethical decision making, fairness and negotiation. For example, in one of my projects, I examine if displaying cues such as moral quotations at the bottom of emails, pictures of ethical leaders in one's cubicle, or religious accessories on one's person can trigger implicit psychological processes in superiors' minds such that, without realizing it, they feel discouraged from asking their subordinates to engage in unethical acts. As a research assistant, you will be presented with opportunities to participate in the design of studies, conduct experiments, and analyze data. For more information on my ongoing research projects, please visit: http://www.business.utah.edu/display.php?fromOrg=953&module=facultyDetails&orgId=953&personId=1219
Karim Kassam 6th Year Ph.D. Student in Psychology kskassam@fas.harvard.edu	The primary focus of my research is examining emotions and their influence on decision making. Questions include: how does guilt affect our tendency to discount future outcomes? How do anger and shame affect our willingness to take risks? Because emotion is a multifaceted concept, its comprehensive study requires a multi-method approach. I’ve looked at self-report, physiological, and endocrinological variables, with the aim of understanding what role each plays in predicting behavior. For more information on my research please visit my website: http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~kskassam/
Neeru Paharia 4th Year DBA Student in Marketing Email: npaharia@hbs.edu	I am interested in finding ways to encourage ecologically and socially sustainable consumption habits given the necessary psychological processes that happen via consumption. How can things like signaling one’s social status or group identity happen without consuming goods that serve this purpose? Given that we know the identity, and emotional motivations behind consumption, how can we encourage people to engage in less ecologically and socially damaging practices? How can we reduce things like moral justification that enable us to continue harmful behavior while believing we are still moral people? For more information on my research please visit my personal website.
Lakshmi Ramarajan Post Doctoral Fellow in Organizational Behavior Email: lramarajan@hbs.edu	My research examines how people work fruitfully across social divides, with a particular emphasis on identities, group boundaries and intergroup relations. I investigate two broad questions related to bridging differences across multiple identities and group boundaries: 1) What are the effects of managing multiple identities on interpersonal and intergroup relations? and 2) How do organizational and intergroup boundaries influence individuals’ multiple identities and intergroup relationships? In recent work I have examined how individuals manage their organizational, ethnic, religious and national identities, and how these identities interact to influence interpersonal problem solving and prosocial attitudes and behavior. Currently, I am examining professional identities and charitable giving behavior in the architecture profession.  For more information on my research, please visit: http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=bio&facEmId=lramarajan%40hbs.edu
Lisa Shu 1st Year Ph.D. Student in Organizational Behavior Email: lshu@fas.harvard.edu	For more information on my research please visit my website: http://www.people.hbs.edu/lshu/
Chia-Jung Tsay 1st Year Ph.D. Student in Organizational Behavior Email: ctsay@hbs.edu	My research focuses on modes of thought---unconscious and conscious---and how they affect decision making (such as through preference reversals), looking more specifically at differences in quality of choice and post-choice satisfaction. I am also interested in exploring how unconscious thought may steer individuals towards more affectively-influenced "want" choices, despite experiencing a want/should conflict. For more information on my research please visit my website: Personal Website