In my primary line of research, I study privacy decision-making. I identify what drives people to share or withhold personal information, as well as their reactions to firms’ and employers’ use of their personal information.

Escalating health care costs have focused attention on changing unhealthy but modifiable behaviors. Tobacco use, obesity, and alcohol abuse together account for nearly one-third of all deaths in the United States. My research has demonstrated that it is possible to exploit people’s decision biases, such as overconfidence and aversion to financial loss, to help them adopt more healthy behaviors. Much of my work in this area has focused on using behavioral insights to help people live healthier lives; in particular to lose weight and reduce their consumption of unhealthful foods such as sugary drinks.

Here, I try to understand why people make decisions that appear to run counter to their interests. For example, why do people prefer products that have been “revised,” even when the revisions are not actual improvements over the prior versions? And why do we punish advisees who don’t follow our advice? Why do we fail to change our minds even when faced with incontrovertible evidence that we’re wrong? Why do sales sometimes increase when they reveal their profit margins?