Presenter Bios

Daniele Pollicino

PhD candidate in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The principal aim of his research is promoting and encouraging sustainable food consumption, both in terms of changing food habits and reducing food waste, with a special focus on social norms. He is also working as a behavioural science consultant at the World Resources Institute (WRI), and recently led the publication of 'The Food Service Playbook for Promoting Sustainable Food Choices.

Presentation Title

Encouraging Sustainable Food Choices Among English Premier League Football Supporters: Assessing Behavioural Changes In A Field Intervention

Sabina Funk

Sabina is a PhD Candidate in Behavioural Science at the University of Warwick. She completed her MRes in cognitive neuroscience from University College London, with a focus on wellbeing research. Her primary research interests include wellbeing, measurement, and people's use of time.

Santiago Ventura

Santiago Ventura is a PhD candidate in Behavioural Science at the University of Warwick. He holds master’s degrees from the Universidad de Chile and the University of Colorado Boulder, with research focusing on gender differences in advice taking and psychological ownership.

His broader interests include political polarization, trust, and public policy. Santiago has taught economics, human resources, and mathematics at various universities in Chile, and has published in Personality and Individual Differences, the Journal of Economic Psychology, and the Revista Vasca de Gestión de Personas y Organizaciones Públicas.

Outside of academia, Santiago was a nationally selected open water swimmer for Chile, initially enrolled in medical school before pursuing business studies, and is currently a member of the University of Warwick’s boxing team.

Presentation Title

The impact of political polarization on trust in politicians and public policy acceptance

This work explores the impact of political polarization on trust in politicians and public policy perception, with significant implications for behavioural public policy. Through three studies, we examine how polarization influences perceived trustworthiness of politicians, public acceptance of neutral (bipartisan) policies, and the role of partisan group support. Our findings reveal that while polarization shapes initial trust perceptions, it does not prevent people from adjusting their views based on new information. Additionally, political affiliation heavily influences policy acceptance, even for neutral policies. These insights underscore the importance of considering polarization when designing effective public policies in today's divided political landscape.

Michael Challis

Michael is a second-year MRes/PhD student in Economics at the University of Warwick. His research lies at the intersection of theory and experiment. He is currently running a lab experiment on how fairness concerns influence voting behavior. Other projects include: cooperative game theory with knowledge partitions, the algebraic structure of solution concepts, and the impact of AI on content consumption and production. As an undergraduate, Michael studied philosophy and mathematics, and he seeks to integrate methods from both disciplines into his economic research.

Sayeh Yousefi

Sayeh Yousefi is a PhD student at LSE studying messaging about outgroups and attitude change. Her research focuses on how messaging style, specifically narratives, can be used to challenge negative attitudes towards outgroups. She is interested in research at the nexus of misinformation, persuasion, and attitude change. Her background is political science and journalism so she is particularly interested in the applications of this research to policy and news dissemination.

Presentation Title

Improving Negative Attitudes Towards Immigrants – The Role of Prior Attitudes and Argument Style

Emmy Wong

Emmy Wong is an incoming MRes/PhD student in the Behavioural Science group at Warwick Business School, currently completing her Master’s in Business Analytics at Imperial College London. Her research interests focus on behavioural change and how human decision-making adapts to new technologies. She is particularly interested in combining experimental methods and online behavioural data to study digital traces and inform behavioural science research

Adam Davidson

Interested in improving the lives of a broad range of people, Adam’s research uses a mixed-method approach to combine psychology, medicine, and behavioural science with epistemology, metaphysics, and pragmatism. His research projects include working with international charities and hospitals to improve mental health in the developing world, investigating the mechanisms that drive experiences of fun, and the practicalities of using fun to improve happiness, behaviour, and personal freedoms.

Presentation Title

Investigating the intrinsic value and instrumental utility of fun

Areesh Fatmee

Areesh Fatmee is a first-year doctoral student at the Institute of Global Pandemic Planning, Warwick Medical School, where she's conducting an interdisciplinary mixed-methods study exploring factors influencing pediatric MMR vaccine uptake and measles resurgence in the UK post-COVID-19 pandemic, combining expertise from Warwick Medical School and Warwick Business School. As an infectious disease epidemiologist with an MPH from George Washington University as a Fulbright Scholar, Areesh has contributed to research at the Antimicrobial Resistance Action Centre- George Washington University, DC, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the DC Department of Health during the MPOX outbreak in partnership with the CDC. Her experience also includes working on the Global Burden of Disease project in Pakistan, focusing on immunization gaps and healthcare utilization among children, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Currently, she is also collaborating with the Higher Education REF team at Warwick Institute of Translational Medicine, evaluating the real-world impact of RCTs and generating evidence for REF 2029.

Nils Mallock

Nils Mallock is a Research Fellow for the XCEPT research programme at King’s College London and a final-year PhD candidate in Psychological and Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He studies the causes of violent and peaceful political action, including how individual perceptions can shape political attitudes and engagement behaviour in conflict-affected environments. His research involves fieldwork in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank, and is focused on quantitative data collection and psychometric analysis, supplemented by qualitative interviews with civil society activists and members of armed groups.

Nils has a background in working with policy think tanks and private sector roles. His research has been featured in various media interviews, podcasts, policy reports and briefings to the UK Foreign Office and other governments.

Presentation Title

Moral outrage and pathways to violent and peaceful political behavior in conflict-affected environments

Anita Braga

Anita is a PhD researcher in Behavioural Science at the University of Warwick, specialising in Human-AI cooperation. Her current work explores how Large Language Models can coordinate with humans by establishing common ground in real-time interactions. She is particularly interested in the social capabilities of AI systems and their potential to function as collaborative agents. Anita holds an MSc in Behavioural Science from the LSE, where she received the Rob Farr Prize for best dissertation, and has previously worked with the European Commission’s Behavioural Insights team and the consultancy Influence at Work, applying behavioural science to topics such as AI trust, misinformation and education.

Presentation Title

Human-AI cooperation: Do Large Language Models Build Common Ground with Humans?

Large Language Models (LLMs) have evolved rapidly, progressing from tools that generate basic text to systems with reasoning and language abilities that rival or surpass those of average humans. As these models reach human-level competence across domains, their adoption in social roles as co-workers, advisors, or caregivers will depend on their ability to collaborate effectively with people. Although LLMs exhibit signs of social behavior, likely due to their training on human-generated data, true social intelligence requires flexible, adaptive skills beyond pattern recognition. This project investigates whether LLMs can participate meaningfully in joint social tasks with humans using an experimental paradigm that tests their ability to build common ground and coordinate without explicit communication. We explore how well LLMs can make cooperative decisions in tasks that demand social reasoning and shared understanding.

Eric Schnell

Eric has an honours BSc in Cognitive Science and Mathematics, with a minor in Religious Studies, from the University of Toronto. His interests are in cooperation, corruption, and the role of culture in influencing these. He studies these questions using empirical data as well as mathematical and computational modelling.

His research consists of three key questions: (1) What are the psychological processes that underlie the structure of human social networks? (2) How do perceptions of zero-sum and conditions of resource availability affect cooperation and conflict? (3) How do the factors that affect cooperation and conflict interact with the structures of human social networks?

Presentation Title

The size of the stag determines the level of cooperation

Malavika Manni

Malavika is a first-year PhD student in Economics at the University of Warwick. Her research interests are primarily in behavioral economics and gender. She is currently working on a study exploring the role of sludge (or administrative barriers) on sexual violence reporting. She is also working on a review paper documenting the biases and barriers to evidence-based policy adoption, and further documenting tools and research that could improve evidence-based policy adoption. She has previously worked on barriers to social learning, particularly focusing on the failures to information aggregation from others and within the household.

Presentation Title

Sludge and Sexual Violence Reporting

Underreporting of sexual violence remains a persistent and significant issue in college campuses in the United States, and can be attributed to several factors. One factor that has not been studied is sludge — administrative barriers — that make the reporting process more cumbersome. I construct a novel dataset using various Title IX reporting outcomes, case outcomes and verdicts, and construct measures of factors of Title IX incident reporting forms for college campuses in the United States. By identifying the factors that contribute to sludge, this exploratory research contributes to the literature on sexual violence prevention and policy design, and provides insights for future extensions.

Pia Marie Pose

Pia is an MPhil/PhD candidate in PBS supervised by Dr Thomas Curran and Professor Michael Muthukrishna. She is studying the rise of perfectionism and its effects on young people entering the workplace. Through her research, she aims to add a perspective on the recent developments of perfectionistic tendencies as well as young people's behaviours, thoughts, feelings and needs around joining the workforce and perfectionism.

Presentation Title

The perfectionistic generation: How rising perfectionism affects young people in the workplace

Qiufan Huang

Qiufan Huang is a first-year MRes/PhD student in Business and Management at the University of Warwick. His research lies at the intersection of computational simulation and experiment. With both undergraduate and master's degrees in Management, he is interested in using agent-based and system dynamics models to simulate organizational or individual behavior, and validating these models through laboratory and online experiments. His broader aim is to integrate formal modeling and empirical testing to better understand decision-making processes in complex environments.

Mariam Abdelnabi

Mariam Abdelnabi is a doctoral researcher in Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School, where her research explores how individuals’ financial footprints can impact decision-making in risky contexts, with a specific focus on gambling behaviour and its associated harms. Mariam has built an academic career as a Researcher in experimental labs across Egypt, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In addition to her academic pursuits, Mariam serves as a Data Analyst at Nudge Lebanon, a pioneering nudge unit in the global south, where she works on policy-driven initiatives in the region. Some of the projects she worked on include financial inclusion, public health, and child protection.

Presentation Title

Behavioural Indicators of Gambling Harm

This study examines the predictive relationship between behavioural indicators from banking transactions and gambling-related harm, measured by the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). Analysing data from approximately 6,000 UK gamblers with transaction histories spanning one year immediately preceding their PGSI assessment, we evaluated multiple gambling-related metrics, including monthly gross spending and monthly net spending. We estimate linear regression models, and our analysis revealed consistently weak associations with PGSI scores across all models, with minimal predictive power. To investigate potential nonlinear relationships or interactions, we implemented XGBoost models. Though these performed marginally better than linear regressions, their predictive capability remained limited.

Jingkai Hong

Jingkai Hong is a PhD candidate in Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School. His research examines cognitive biases in decision-making, focusing on how value magnitude, attentional dynamics, and contextual constraints (e.g., time pressure and cognitive load) influence choice behaviour. He uses eye-tracking and computational modelling approaches, such as the attentional Drift Diffusion Model (aDDM), to investigate how individuals allocate attention during value-based decisions. His work advances the understanding of consumer behaviour by uncovering the cognitive mechanisms that drive preferences and biases. Jingkai has presented his research at international conferences including SPUDM and SJDM. He is currently seeking a postdoctoral position in consumer behaviour (Marketing) or behavioural science.

Presentation Title

Early and Late Information Biases Evidence Accumulation in Decision Making

The primacy and recency effects are well-documented in memory research, yet their roles in dynamic decision-making remain less understood. This study investigates the temporal dynamics of primacy and recency effects in decision-making, extending insights from evidence accumulation models to real-time decisions involving dynamic stimuli. While serial-position effects have been extensively documented in memory, their influence in continuous decision contexts, where individuals can control decision timing, remains underexplored. Using data reanalysis from three prior studies (Pleskac et al., 2019, 2023; Calder-Travis, 2022), we examine how individuals' decisions are influenced by early and recent information, comparing optional stopping and complete observation tasks. Our findings reveal a significant initial primacy effect that decreases over time, and a recency effect that emerges late on in choice but declines in the very final moments before a response is recorded. Comparing this time course to that of the attentional gaze cascade effect suggests a decoupling between visual attention and evidence accumulation, as attention becomes biased towards the eventual choice at the same time that the incoming evidence is found to have reduced, or no impact upon the decision. Furthermore, the recency effect is more pronounced when participants control the decision endpoint, implying its connection to the deliberation termination mechanism. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of how temporal biases shape decision-making processes under varying conditions of control and information presentation.

Becky Zhu

Bijun (Becky) Zhu is in the final year of her PhD at Warwick Business School (WBS). Her research interests are prosocial behaviour, social norms and decision-making. She uses experimental methods to investigate how factors like common ground, range of options, and punishment influence cooperative and prosocial behaviour. Prior to her PhD, she obtained an MSc in Behavioural and Economic Science from the University of Warwick and has a background in accounting.

Presentation Title

When Punishment Backfires: The Crucial Role of Common Knowledge in Fostering Cooperation and Preventing Feuds

Punishment is important for preserving social cooperation through normative signalling, but it can also backfire and lead to feuds between parties. Although punishment has been extensively studied, less attention has been paid to how common knowledge affects its effectiveness and potential consequences, particularly how punishment might backfire when common knowledge is absent. This research investigates these relationships using a modified dictator game. We conducted a 2x3 experiment that varied common knowledge (whether dictators knew if receivers earned the endowment) and punishment conditions (no punishment, single punishment, and three-round punishment). The findings suggest that dictators transferred more points when they were informed of the receivers' earned endowment, and punishment was more effective when both parties had common knowledge. Receivers were more inclined to punish low transfers under one-round vs. three-round settings, and feuds had a positive relationship with low transfers. These findings suggest that the effectiveness of punishment in fostering cooperation depends significantly on whether parties share common knowledge of the norms that punishment aims to protect. This relationship has important practical implications for developing effective conflict management and prevention strategies.

Zark Wang

I am a PhD candidate at Warwick Business School, specializing in behavioral economics. I primarily work on modeling the mental processes underlying information acquisition, and evaluating how these processes influence economic decision-making (e.g., how attention affects consumption-saving behavior, how noise and learning affect the measurement of economic preferences). My work combines axiomatic modeling, analysis of observational data, and behavioral experiments. In addition, I have experience developing digital tools to help people plan their investments.

Tristan Boedts

Tristan Boedts is a first-year PhD student in Behavioural Science at the Warwick Business School, currently in the MRes phase of the five-year programme.

His research centres on misinformation, which will also be the topic of his MRes dissertation. More broadly, he is fascinated by the weird quirks in human behaviour—especially in the realms of nudging, social proof, social norms, and policy design.

Before joining WBS, he completed an MSc at the University of Reading, where he was awarded the prize for best dissertation. Before his MSc, Tristan worked at the cabinet of the State Secretary for the Budget and Consumer Protection in Belgium - his home country.

Beyond academia, he is proud to have trekked to Everest Base Camp despite living with Muscular Dystrophy - a muscule waisting condition - which made him the first ever person to do so with his disability.

Lastly, being a first-year student and as such still being a dreamer, Tristan hopes to continue in academia later on

Presentation Title

Combatting Misinformation

I explore how gamification and psychological tools can be used to build resilience against misinformation. Expanding on the "Bad News Game," my MRes project investigates how active learning can be used to help individuals better recognise and resist misinformation without resorting to censorship. I discuss the balance between experimental control and real-world generalisability, and reflect on the ethical challenges of simulating misinformation in educational contexts. I also briefly touch on my related work on social norms, nudging, and behavioural differences by gender. I welcome questions during the session or later at the pub.

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