I enthusiastically pursue two research goals: Uncovering fundamental insights about human behavior and creating actionable recommendations that improve organizational outcomes. To achieve these goals, I ground my research in behavioral experiments and intentionally study diverse populations, including citizens from over 80 countries, national security professionals, city mayors, police chiefs, and private-sector managers. Finally, I embrace principles of open science: I publicly post my data and pre-register my experiments (links below).
My primary line of work re-considers classic work on decision-making biases through a social/organizational lens, and reveals that several seemingly suboptimal behaviors appear functional once reputational incentives are introduced. This work uncovers a novel trade-off between what is often best for the organization (i.e., maximizing expected value) and what is often best for the focal decision maker (i.e., reputation management). In my second line of work, I examine how emotions drive decision making in two critically important domains: conflict and health. Together, my research integrates theory and methods from psychology, organizational behavior, economics, and affective science to examine barriers to effective organizational decision making.
Selected papers accepted/published
Dorison, C.A., Umphres, C., & Lerner, J.S. (2021) Staying the course: Decision makers who escalate commitment are trusted and trustworthy. Forthcoming in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (OSF)
Wang, K., Goldenberg, A., Dorison, C.A., Miller, J., Lerner, J.S., Gross, J.J., & 100+ others (2021). A global test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Human Behaviour. (OSF)
Logg, J., & Dorison, C.A. (2021). Pre-registration: Weighing costs and benefits for researchers. Organizational
Behavior and Human Decision Processes. (OSF)
Dorison, C.A., Wang, K., Rees, V., Kawachi, I., Ericson, K.M.M., & Lerner, J.S. (2020). Sadness, but not all negative emotions, heightens addictive substance use. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(2), 943-949. (OSF)
Dorison, C.A., Minson, J.A., & Rogers, T. (2019). Selective exposure partly relies on faulty affective forecasts. Cognition. 188(1), 98-107. (OSF)
Selected papers with revision requested
Dorison, C.A. & Minson, J.A. You can’t handle the truth (but I can)! Errors in affective perspective taking during attitude conflict. Revise & Resubmit, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. (ResearchBox)
Dorison, C.A., DeWees, B., & Minson, J.A. Beyond accuracy: The reputational costs of independent judgment aggregation. Revise & Resubmit, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. (OSF)
Dorison, C.A., & Heller, B. Third-party observers socially and financially penalize decision makers who do not fall victim to framing effects. Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (ResearchBox)
Selected papers under review
Dorison, C.A., & Kteily, N., Reputational stakes shape partisans' reactions to material suffering. Under review.(ResearchBox)
Dorison, C.A., Coles, N.A., Lerner, J.S., Heller, B.H., Rothman, A.J., Kawachi, I.I., Wang, K., Rees, V.W., Gill, B.P., Gibbs, N., & Psychological Science Accelerator COVID-19 Rapid Team (including 400+ co-authors). In COVID-19 health messaging, loss framing increases anxiety with little-to-no concomitant benefits: Experimental evidence from 84 countries. Under review. (OSF)
Selected papers in preparation/revision
Dorison, C.A., Umphres, C., DeWees, B., & Lerner, J.S. The benefits of bias: Decision makers who exhibit sunk cost bias receive social and economic rewards for doing so.
Dorison, C.A., DeWees, B., Rahwan, Z., Robichaud, C., & Lerner, J.S. When waste pays: Inefficient (but seemingly fair) resource allocations are used to signal trustworthiness.
My primary line of work re-considers classic work on decision-making biases through a social/organizational lens, and reveals that several seemingly suboptimal behaviors appear functional once reputational incentives are introduced. This work uncovers a novel trade-off between what is often best for the organization (i.e., maximizing expected value) and what is often best for the focal decision maker (i.e., reputation management). In my second line of work, I examine how emotions drive decision making in two critically important domains: conflict and health. Together, my research integrates theory and methods from psychology, organizational behavior, economics, and affective science to examine barriers to effective organizational decision making.
Selected papers accepted/published
Dorison, C.A., Umphres, C., & Lerner, J.S. (2021) Staying the course: Decision makers who escalate commitment are trusted and trustworthy. Forthcoming in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (OSF)
Wang, K., Goldenberg, A., Dorison, C.A., Miller, J., Lerner, J.S., Gross, J.J., & 100+ others (2021). A global test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nature Human Behaviour. (OSF)
Logg, J., & Dorison, C.A. (2021). Pre-registration: Weighing costs and benefits for researchers. Organizational
Behavior and Human Decision Processes. (OSF)
Dorison, C.A., Wang, K., Rees, V., Kawachi, I., Ericson, K.M.M., & Lerner, J.S. (2020). Sadness, but not all negative emotions, heightens addictive substance use. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(2), 943-949. (OSF)
Dorison, C.A., Minson, J.A., & Rogers, T. (2019). Selective exposure partly relies on faulty affective forecasts. Cognition. 188(1), 98-107. (OSF)
Selected papers with revision requested
Dorison, C.A. & Minson, J.A. You can’t handle the truth (but I can)! Errors in affective perspective taking during attitude conflict. Revise & Resubmit, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. (ResearchBox)
Dorison, C.A., DeWees, B., & Minson, J.A. Beyond accuracy: The reputational costs of independent judgment aggregation. Revise & Resubmit, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. (OSF)
Dorison, C.A., & Heller, B. Third-party observers socially and financially penalize decision makers who do not fall victim to framing effects. Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (ResearchBox)
Selected papers under review
Dorison, C.A., & Kteily, N., Reputational stakes shape partisans' reactions to material suffering. Under review.(ResearchBox)
Dorison, C.A., Coles, N.A., Lerner, J.S., Heller, B.H., Rothman, A.J., Kawachi, I.I., Wang, K., Rees, V.W., Gill, B.P., Gibbs, N., & Psychological Science Accelerator COVID-19 Rapid Team (including 400+ co-authors). In COVID-19 health messaging, loss framing increases anxiety with little-to-no concomitant benefits: Experimental evidence from 84 countries. Under review. (OSF)
Selected papers in preparation/revision
Dorison, C.A., Umphres, C., DeWees, B., & Lerner, J.S. The benefits of bias: Decision makers who exhibit sunk cost bias receive social and economic rewards for doing so.
Dorison, C.A., DeWees, B., Rahwan, Z., Robichaud, C., & Lerner, J.S. When waste pays: Inefficient (but seemingly fair) resource allocations are used to signal trustworthiness.
