The current focus of my interests and research has been in the fields of dynamic decision-making, system’s thinking and modeling human behavior using Instance-Based approach as implemented in ACT-R theory of cognition.
Most recently, working in DDMLab, Carnegie Mellon University, I have applied myself to investigate problems concerning human perception of accumulations and flows in the domain of climate change. In regards to climate change which is a topic my Ph.D. dessertation, I have under taken a number of research projects that have tried to answer the question on "Why do we wait and see on policies to mitigate climate change?" In my research to answer this question I have focused on three seperate thories of decision making.
One probable explanation for the wait and see by us could be the use of “correlation heuristic” or “proportional thinking” as seen in both well educated adults as well as school children in the past. The erroneous proportional belief that stabilizing emissions would quickly stabilize the climate supports wait and see policies but violates basic laws of physics.
A second possible explanation for wait and see might be related to risk-seeking and risk-averse behavior seen among people under gains and losses. Classical research in decision making has shown that for a typical climate change future rare event with a high negative (or loss) consequence in the future, people should become risk-averse and do something about it. But neither any future climate event’s negative outcome is exactly known nor is it experienced as often due to its low probability making people risk-seeking supporting the wait and see.
Yet there may be a third possible explanation for why do we wait and see that might have to do with inter-temporal choice and hyperbolic discounting on problems. Problems of this kind involve choices inter-temporally placed in time i.e. either accept/pay something now or accept/pay something in the future. People discount gains more than losses, discount large outcomes less than small ones, and these effects make people accept immediate gains on emitting more right now rather than delay them in the future and in turn wait and see on climate.
To see my recent publications visit my publications page.
I addition to the above research, I am also a freelance journalist and Knowledge Editor of a popular Indian newspaper, Financial Chronicle and have authored more than 80 articles in different newspapers.