Research Summary

Research in the Judgment, Decision Making and Social Processes research group focuses on judgment and decision making in model systems and in everyday situations, including in the workplace, and on the impact of individual differences and social contexts on these processes. Members of the group aim to carry out excellent research, to produce publications in high-impact journals, and to bid for grants in the research areas listed below.

Current research themes

Judgment and Decision Making Lab

Researchers   

• Full list of publications from the Judgment, Decision Making and Social Processes research group since 2000

• Full list of conference presentations from the Judgment, Decision Making and Social Processes research group since 2006

Recent research grants

Baker, R., Mellon, J., Colman, A. M., Steward, W., Kockelbergh, R., Sinfield, P., Tarrant, C., Crosbee, L.,& Sproston, K. (2004-2007). £347,291 awarded by the NHS Service Delivery and Organisation National R&D Programme for research into “Prostate Cancer Care: Improving Measures of Patient Experience".

Bolger, F., & Gillett, R. T. (2004-2006). £47,125 awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council for research into “News, Mood and Consumer Confidence”.

Colley, A., & Maltby, J. (2008). £36,475 awarded by the Leverhulme Trust for “Public Sporting Role Models, Sports Interest and Sport Participation Among Young People”.

Colman, A. M. (2005-2006). £2,600 awarded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh to study “Evolution of Cooperation Through Coordinated Turn-Taking”.

Colman, A. M., & Al-Nowaihi, A. (2004-2005). £12,054 awarded by the British Academy Larger Research Grants Scheme to study “Cooperation in Multi-Player Minimal Social Situations: An Experimental Investigation”.

Colman, A. M., & Pulford, B. D. (2009). £7,272 awarded by the Nuffield Foundation Social Sciences Small Grants Scheme for a study of “Evolution of Cooperation Through Similarity Recognition”.

Colman, A. M., Pulford, B. D., & Bolger, F. (2003-2005).£121,563 awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council for research into “Confidence in Interactive Decisions”.

Dixon-Woods, M., & Robertson, N. (2008). £25,051 awarded by the National Research Ethics Service (NRES) for a “Qualitative Analysis of REC Decisions About Studies Involving Issues Related to Mental Incapacity Before and After the Mental Capacity Act”.

Gold, N., Colman, A. M., & Pulford, B. D. (2010–12). £151,216 awarded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council for a study of “Framing Effects in Ethical Dilemmas”. (Grant No. AH/H001158/1)

Maltby, J., Day, L. & Giles, D. C. (2008/2009). ‘To be, or not to be, a psychologist’: Psychology students implicit theories of what makes an ideal psychologist. Higher Education Academy Psychology Network £5679

Maltby, J., Day, L. & Giles, D. C. (2008/2009). Psychological Test Resource. Higher Education Academy Psychology Network. £4966 

Maltby, J. & Day, L. (2009/10). Individual Difference Practical Resource Pack. Higher Education Academy Psychology Network £5492.80

Pulford, B. D. (2002-2005). £21,000 awarded by the University of Wolverhampton Studentship Fund for a postgraduate studentship on "The Communication and Influence of Confidence and Uncertainty"

Pulford, B. D. & Colman A.M. (2011-2016). £100,000 awarded by the Leicester Judgment and Decision Making Endowment Fund for research into "Coordination, Judgment, and Decision Making".

Pulford, B. D., & Randall, R. (2007-2008). £6,587 awarded by the British Academy for "An examination of the domain-specificity and predictive validity of confidence measures"

Randall, R., & Pulford, B. D. (2007-2008). £6,587 awarded by the British Academy for “An Examination of the Domain-specificity and Predictive Validity of Confidence Measures”.

Selected recent research papers

Atherton R and Robertson N (2006). Psychological adjustment to lower limb amputation.  Disability and Rehabilitation, 28, 1201-1209.

Bolger, F., Pulford, B. D., & Colman, A. M. (2008). Market entry decisions: Effects of absolute and relative confidence. Experimental Psychology, 55, 113-120.

Browning, L., & Colman, A. M. (2004). Evolution of coordinated alternating reciprocity in repeated dyadic games. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 229, 549-557.

Colman, A. M. (2003). Beyond rationality: Rigor without mortis in game theory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 26, 180-198. [Reply to commentaries]

Colman, A. M. (2003). Cooperation, psychological game theory, and limitations of rationality in social interaction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 26, 139-153. [Target article]

Colman, A. M. (2003). Depth of strategic reasoning in games. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 2-4.

Colman, A. M. (2007). Love is not enough: Other-regarding preferences cannot explain payoff dominance in game theory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30, 22-23.

Colman, A. M., & Browning, L. (2009). Evolution of cooperative turn-taking. Evolutionary Ecology Research, 11, 949-963.  

Colman, A. M., Pulford, B. D., & Bolger, F. (2007). Asymmetric dominance and phantom decoy effects in games. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 104, 193-206.

Colman, A. M., Pulford, B. D., & Rose, J. (2008). Collective rationality in interactive decisions: Evidence for team reasoning. Acta Psychologica, 128, 387-397. [Target article]

Colman, A. M., Pulford, B. D., & Rose, J. (2008). Team reasoning and collective rationality: Piercing the veil of obviousness. Acta Psychologica, 128, 409–412. [Reply to commentaries]

Egan, V, & Campbell, V.  (2009).  Sensational interests, sustaining fantasies and personality predict physical aggression.  Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 464 - 469.

Egan, V., & Cordan, G,.  (2009).  Barely legal: perceptions of attraction and age as a function of make-up, sex, age of participant and alcohol use.  British Journal of Psychology, 100, 415 – 427

Haggar-Johnstone, G.,  Egan, V. (in press).  Sadistic personality disorder and sensational interests.  Journal of Forensic Psychology and Psychiatry (in press).

Harrington, S. (2008). Seeking the Positive from the Negative: Morally Courageous Human Resource Management. Organisation and People, 15, 20-26.

Liu, H.-H., & Colman, A. M. (2009). Ambiguity aversion in the long run: Repeated decisions under risk and uncertainty. Journal of Economic Psychology, 30, 277-284.

Maltby, J. (in press). An Interest in Fame: Confirming the measurement and empirical conceptualisation of fame interest. British Journal of Psychology.

Maltby, J., Wood, A., Day, L., Kon, T.W.H, Colley, A. & Linley, P.A. (2008). Personality predictors of levels of forgiveness two and a half years after the transgression. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 1088-1094.

Nielsen, K., Randall, R., Yarker, J. & Brenner, S-O. (2008). The effects of transformational leadership on followers’ perceived work characteristics and well-being: A longitudinal study. Work and Stress, 22, 16-32. 

Nielsen, K., & Randall, R. (2009). Managers’ Active support when implementing teams: The impact on employee well-being. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being.

Norris, C. E., Colman, A. M., & Aleixo, P. A. (2003). Selective exposure to television programmes and advertising effectiveness. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 17, 596-606.

Preston, C. C., & Colman, A. M. (2000). Optimal number of response categories in rating scales: Reliability, validity, discriminating power, and respondent preferences. Acta Psychologica, 104, 1-15.

Pulford, B. D. (in press). The influence of advice in a Virtual Learning Environment.  British Journal of Educational Technology

Pulford, B. D. (2009). Is luck on my side? Optimism, pessimism, and ambiguity aversion. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 62, 1079-1087.

Pulford, B. D., & Colman, A. M. (2007). Ambiguous games: Evidence for strategic ambiguity aversion. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 1083-1100.

Pulford, B. D., & Colman, A. M. (2008). Size doesn't really matter: Ambiguity aversion in Ellsberg urns with few balls. Experimental Psychology, 55(1), 31-37.

Randall, R., Nielsen, N., & Tvedt, S. (2009). The development of scales to measure participants’ appraisals of organizational-level stress management interventions. Work and Stress, 23, 1-23.

Sinfield, P., Baker, R., Camosso-Stefinovic, J., Colman, A. M., & Tarrant, C., Mellon, J. K., Steward, W., Kockelbergh, R., & Agarwal, S. (2009). Men’s and carers’ experiences of care for prostate cancer: A narrative literature review. Health Expectations,12, 301-312.

Sinfield, P., Baker, R., Tarrant, C., Agarwal, S., Colman, A. M., Steward, W., Kockelbergh, R., & Mellon, J. K. (2009). The Prostate Care Questionnaire for Carers (PCQ–C): Reliability, validity and acceptability. BMC Health Services Research, 9, 229.

Tarrant, C., Baker R., Colman, A. M., Sinfield, P., Agarwal, S., Mellon, J. K., Steward, W., & Kockelbergh, R. (2009). The Prostate Care Questionnaire for Patients (PCQ–P): Reliability, validity and acceptability. BMC Health Services Research, 9, 199.

Tarrant, C., Colman, A. M., & Stokes, T. (2008). Past experience, "shadow of the future", and patient trust: A cross-sectional survey. British Journal of General Practice, 58, 780-783.

Tarrant, C., Stokes, T., & Colman, A. M. (2004). Models of the medical consultation: Opportunities and limitations of a game theory perspective. Quality & Safety in Health Care, 13, 461-466.

Weekes, B.S., Hamilton, S., Oakhill, J., & Holliday, R.E. (2008). False recollection in children with reading comprehension difficulties. Cognition, 106, 222-233.

Wesson, C. J., & Pulford, B. D. (2009). Verbal expressions of confidence and doubt.  Psychological Reports, 105, 151-160.

Wood, A. M., Maltby, J. Stewart, N., Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2008). A social-cognitive model of trait and state levels of gratitude. Emotion, 8, 281-290.

Wood, A. M., Linley, P. A., Maltby, J., Baliousis, M. & Joseph, S. (2008). The authentic personality: A theoretical and empirical conceptualization, and the development of the Authenticity Scale. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55, 385-399.

Wood, A. M., Maltby, J., Gillett, R., Linley, P. A., & Joseph, S. (2008). The role of gratitude in the development of social support, stress, and depression: Two longitudinal studies. Journal of Research in Personality, 42, 854-871. 

Conference presentations

Members of the research group regularly present papers, as either oral or poster communications at national and international conferences.  Some examples of recent conferences:

• British Psychological Society Quinquennial Conference, Manchester, 2005
• British Psychological Society: Mathematical, Statistical & Computing Section; Leicester, 2008
• East Midlands Game Theory and Applications Workshop, 2003
• European Congress of Work & Organisational Psychology; Spain, 2009
• ESRC International Symposium on Confidence in Interactive Decisions, University of Leicester, 2005
• Experimental Psychology Society; London, 2006; Edinburgh, 2007; Cambridge, 2008
• Fifth Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory, Ischia, Italy, 2001
• FUR XI: the 11th conference on the Foundations and Applications of Utility, Risk and Decision Theory, Paris, 2004
• International Conference of Cognitive Economics, New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2005
• Judgment and Decision Making Group; London, 2008
• LOFT5 (Logical Foundations of Game Theory) conference, Turin, Italy, 2002
• Midlands Game Theory Workshop, Keele, 2005
• Oxford Experimental Economics Workshop, University of Oxford, 2004
• London Judgment and Decision Making Group, University College London, 2008
• Psychonomic Society; Chicago, USA, 2008; Boston, USA, 2009
• Second International Conference on Business, Management and Economics, Yasar University, Cesme, Izmir, Turkey, 2006
• Society for Research in Child Development; Denver, USA, 2009
• Teamwork: A Multi-Professional Workshop, St Catherine’s College, Oxford, 2003
• Twentieth Research Conference on Subjective Probability, Utility, and Decision Making (SPUDM20), Stockholm, 2005
• Workshop on “Perspectives on the Theory of We-thinking” in honour of Michael Bacharach, University of Trento, Italy, 2008