Principal Investigator
Andras Molnar [CV]
Andras Molnar is an Assistant Professor of Psychology, with education and research training at the intersection of psychology, economics, and business. His research focuses on motivated preferences for information and the role of beliefs in social interactions, especially those involving moral behavior. He studies situations in which people have “non-instrumental” reasons to care about what they and others believe, as well as the implications of these motives for theories of decision-making, organizations, and public policy. Before joining the University of Michigan, he worked as a Principal Researcher at the University of Chicago and obtained his Ph.D. in Behavioral Decision Research at Carnegie Mellon University.
Lab manager
Lizz Gallinari
Lizz Gallinari is the Lab Manager for the Beliefs and Decision Making lab at the University of Michigan. She finds great fulfillment in designing and conducting research. Before this position, she received her Ph.D. in experimental social psychology from the University of Toledo. As a graduate student, her research focused on online comparative processes and how they impact well-being and future behavior. Her academic background reflects an understanding of the theoretical foundations of psychology, combined with hands-on experience in the practical application of research methodologies.
Graduate students
Atakan Atamer
Atakan Atamer is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience program. In his recent research, he investigates whether experiencing processing difficulty promotes analytical reasoning. His primary interest lies in topics related to reasoning, judgment and decision-making, and mental effort.
Jingyi Qiu
Jingyi Qiu is a second-year PhD student at the University of Michigan School of Information. Her research interest lies in behavioral economics, information economics, and the intersection of human learning and machine learning. Currently, Jingyi is interested in identifying how behavioral biases and heuristics influence human learning trajectories via machine learning techniques.
Jiaqi Zhu
Jiaqi (Julie) is a second-year master’s student studying Statistics, just got her first master’s degree in Economics at the UMich. She has been fascinated by behavioral economics and cognitive psychology, and was naturally attracted to the “immaterial, nonphysical concepts” like memory, expectations, motivation, belief, time, emotion, and morality. Her academic pursuit is to be a researcher who confronts authenticity.
Research assistants
Felix Lahann
Felix Lahann is a Freshman at the University of Michigan studying Cognitive Science on the “Decision and Cognition” track and is planning on minoring in Computer Science. Additionally, he has an interest in researching the intersection between neuroeconomics, decision-making, and artificial intelligence. During his free time, he likes to read mystery novels and play soccer.
Helena Marano
I am a Sophomore at The University of Michigan studying economics and Cognitive Science; Decision and Cognition with a minor in Middle East Studies. I am interested in decision making, particularly in the context of digital behavior and influence. For the credits I have that are not filled by economics, cognitive science, or information science, I will be in as many history classes as I can fit.
