I have always been fascinated by the ​hidden forces that shape the behavior of individuals, organizations, and communities. In fact, my entire career can be summed up as an effort to unearth and understand what makes people tick.
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The thrust of my academic research, first as graduate student at the University of Chicago and then as professor at Rutgers University, has been about developing a more socially situated approach to decision analysis. Using a barrage of qualitative and mixed-method techniques, I have exposed the powerful impact the social environment has on individual behaviors and choices. And I have integrated the strengths of competing theoretical perspectives (American pragmatism, behavioral economics, cognitive psychology, cultural sociology, organizational analysis, science and technology studies) to offer a framework for auditing real-world uncertainty management that can be exported and applied to a variety of complex systems and expertise domains.
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This line of research casts into new light how information workers make decisions in the digital age and has received several recognitions, including the 2017 CITAMS Book Award by the American Sociological Association for my book, Masters of Uncertainty: Weather Forecasters and the Quest for Ground Truth. My latest book project, tentatively titled How Doctors Make Decisions: The Role of Prognosis in Cardiology Practice, continues to pursue a sociologically-informed approach to decision analysis – this time through an ethnography of hospital cardiologists at work. Specifically, I am uncovering and fleshing out mechanisms of medical decision making against different time horizons, from emergency and acute care to follow-up and chronic care.
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Over time my interests have expanded to applied research and, in 2018, I transitioned from academia to industry. My goal now is not only to understand what makes people tick, but to design and optimize products and interactions in order to help people make the right choices for themselves and their loved ones.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Risk and Uncertainty Management
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consumer/financial decision making
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choice architecture and message framing
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disaster prevention/mitigation
User Experience
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​product usability and adoption
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customer support and digital self-service
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personalization and engagement
Health Care
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clinical decision support​
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patient communication
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habit formation and behavior change
Knowledge Economy
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augmented cognition
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workplace transformation and change management
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teamwork and organizational culture​
Public Understanding of Science​
- adaptive problem solving
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lay expertise
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risk communication
Qualitative and Mixed Methods​
- ethnography and interview/focus groups
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survey and content/conversation analysis
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design of experiments
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behavioral data analysis