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I am an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations and of Behavioral Decision Making at Anderson School of Management. I am the co-director of the UCLA Health-Anderson Nudge Unit, which applies insights from behavioral science to develop interventions for improving clinical quality. I am serving as a Senior Editor for Organization Science.   

I primarily use field experiments and observational data to study self-control and motivation

From an intrapersonal perspective, I seek to understand how individuals make decisions when choosing between options that will yield long-term benefits and those that will produce short-term gratification. In particular, I have focused on how fresh starts—moments that actually or psychologically separate people from the past—affect self-control and goal motivation. 

From an interpersonal perspective, I examine how others’ behaviors and judgments shape people’s motivation. 

From a policy perspective, I devise interventions based on behavioral science theories and test their efficacy in the field. I also seek to more comprehensively understand the effects of managerial interventions beyond their immediate impact by uncovering unintended negative consequences they may yield, documenting their long-term effects, and identifying determinants of intervention scalability.

Curriculum Vitae         Hengchen's UCLA Home Page       Google Scholar      SSRN

Education: 

PhD 2015, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

BA in Economics & BS in Psychology, 2010, Peking University

Research Interests:  Goals and Motivation, Behavior Change,  Social Influence

Email: hengchen.dai@anderson.ucla.edu

Phone: (310) 206-2716

Address: 110 Westwood Plaza, Suite A-405, Los Angeles, CA 90095