IN THE NEWS:
Recently named a fellow of the American Statistical Association for creative research on statistics and rational decision-making, contributions to the application of cognitive psychology to survey research, and promotion of careful statistical thinking in psychology and behavioral research.

1. Intuitive expertise: People claim to have intuitive expertise in a wide variety of areas, often basing this claim on "experience." I investigate to what degree and under what circumstances these claims are valid or invalid. Invalidity often stems from the systematic biases of retrospective memory, which I also investigate.
2. Human cooperation: We observe more human cooperation than can be readily inferred from a game theoretic analysis that assumes people are = selfish. I have long been dubious that we can "rescue" this analysis by extending it to include "side payments" (e.g. reciprocal altruism, concern with reputation, utility for acting in accord with a socially instilled conscience, benefit to those genetically related).
3. Irrationality which I study as an empirical - as well as introspective - basis.
4. Methodology: I'm also interested in the philosophy of "soft" psychology and allied social sciences, and I have published papers questioning a number of standard assumptions about how well work is done in these areas. I ask questions such as: "Does the standard statistical population/sample inference model accurately describe how we generalize?"
5. AIDS Policy--Whatever skills I've developed, I believe that some should be devoted to the problem of education and behavior change to stem the HIV epidemic.