In 2017, I taught an executive education course on managerial decision making to 30 police chiefs. During class, one chief argued that if he always followed recommendations for rational decision making (e.g., by ignoring even large sunk costs), city council would never trust him again. His critique ignited both my curiosity and central research program.
My primary line of research builds upon this experience to reconsider classic work on decision-making biases through the lens of conflict and collaboration. Traditionally, research on judgment and decision making examines when and why decision makers are prone to errors. My work examines when and why observers positively evaluate error-prone decision makers. I also develop and test communication strategies for leaders to use to maintain trust when making avoiding such errors. In a second line of work, I examine conflict and collaboration in the face of strongly-held attitudes (e.g., politics), especially the mis-perceptions we hold of conflict counterparts and interventions to overcome these mis-perceptions. In a final line of work, I study how emotions influence health decision making.
Selected papers published
Moore, M., Dorison, C.A., & Minson, J.A (2023). The contingent reputational benefits of selective exposure to partisan information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Advance online publication. (OSF)
Dorison, C.A. & Minson, J.A. (2022). You can’t handle the truth! Conflict counterparts over-estimate each other's feelings of self-threat. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. (ResearchBox)
Collins, H., Dorison, C.A., Minson, J.A., & Gino, F. (2022). Under-estimating counterparts' learning goals impairs conflictual conversations. Psychological Science. (Researchbox) (OSF)
Dorison, C.A., & Heller, B. (2022) Observers penalize decision makers whose risk preferences are unaffected by loss-gain framing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (ResearchBox)
Dorison, C.A., Umphres, C., & Lerner, J.S. (2021) Staying the course: Decision makers who escalate commitment are trusted and trustworthy. 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)
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 under review
Dorison, C.A., & Kteily, N., Group-based reputational incentives can blunt sensitivity to societal harms and benefits. Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (ResearchBox)
Dorison, C.A., DeWees, B., & Minson, J.A. Beyond accuracy: The reputational costs of independent judgment aggregation. Under review. (OSF)
Dorison, C.A. Reputational rationality theory.
My primary line of research builds upon this experience to reconsider classic work on decision-making biases through the lens of conflict and collaboration. Traditionally, research on judgment and decision making examines when and why decision makers are prone to errors. My work examines when and why observers positively evaluate error-prone decision makers. I also develop and test communication strategies for leaders to use to maintain trust when making avoiding such errors. In a second line of work, I examine conflict and collaboration in the face of strongly-held attitudes (e.g., politics), especially the mis-perceptions we hold of conflict counterparts and interventions to overcome these mis-perceptions. In a final line of work, I study how emotions influence health decision making.
Selected papers published
Moore, M., Dorison, C.A., & Minson, J.A (2023). The contingent reputational benefits of selective exposure to partisan information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Advance online publication. (OSF)
Dorison, C.A. & Minson, J.A. (2022). You can’t handle the truth! Conflict counterparts over-estimate each other's feelings of self-threat. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. (ResearchBox)
Collins, H., Dorison, C.A., Minson, J.A., & Gino, F. (2022). Under-estimating counterparts' learning goals impairs conflictual conversations. Psychological Science. (Researchbox) (OSF)
Dorison, C.A., & Heller, B. (2022) Observers penalize decision makers whose risk preferences are unaffected by loss-gain framing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (ResearchBox)
Dorison, C.A., Umphres, C., & Lerner, J.S. (2021) Staying the course: Decision makers who escalate commitment are trusted and trustworthy. 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)
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 under review
Dorison, C.A., & Kteily, N., Group-based reputational incentives can blunt sensitivity to societal harms and benefits. Revise & Resubmit, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (ResearchBox)
Dorison, C.A., DeWees, B., & Minson, J.A. Beyond accuracy: The reputational costs of independent judgment aggregation. Under review. (OSF)
Dorison, C.A. Reputational rationality theory.