معرفی
Gretchen Chapman is a Professor of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University's Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, with an affiliated appointment in Psychology. She joined CMU in 2017 after serving as a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University, where she was Department Chair of Psychology and Acting Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Science.
Education:
- PhD in Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
- AB in Psychology, Bryn Mawr College
Chapman's research focuses on the psychological processes underlying decision making, particularly in health contexts. Her work bridges judgment and decision making with health psychology to develop theoretically-motivated interventions that promote healthy and prosocial behaviors like vaccination and blood donation. She examines how cognitive biases, social norms, and environmental factors influence health decisions through both laboratory and field experiments. Her research spans vaccination behavior, organ donation decisions, dietary choices, and allocation of scarce medical resources.
Analysis of Chapman's recent publications reveals consistent focus on applying behavioral science principles to public health challenges, particularly vaccine uptake and organ donation. Her work demonstrates how subtle changes in choice architecture - like default options, framing effects, and social norms - can significantly impact health behaviors without requiring changes in beliefs or attitudes. The research shows increasing emphasis on real-world field experiments that test interventions with direct policy implications.
Awards and Recognition:
- APA early career award
- NJ Psychological Association Distinguished Research Award
- Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA)
- Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS)
- Past president of the Society for Judgment & Decision Making
- Former senior editor at Psychological Science
Chapman has mentored numerous graduate students, many of whom have received prestigious awards including NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Awards. Her research group has secured 30 years of continuous external funding, supporting both fundamental research on decision processes and applied interventions with policy relevance. She collaborates extensively with healthcare systems, public health departments, and policy organizations to implement and evaluate behavioral interventions.
Chapman leads the Chapman Research Group, which brings together faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates to design and conduct experiments on decision making. The group's work is highly interdisciplinary, combining methods from cognitive psychology, behavioral economics, and public health to address pressing societal challenges related to health behavior and resource allocation.
