The Global Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. Jan K.'s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
About Jan K.
Qualifications:
Previous academic positions
- 2020-ongoing: Associate Research Scientist --- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
- 2012-2020: Research Scientist --- Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
- 2017-2018: Research Scientist --- German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Berlin, Germany
- 2007-2012: Research Scientist --- Department of Organizational Behavior, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- Before 2007: positions at RUB, Bochum; University of Erfurt; Arizona State University, USA
Education
- PhD and diploma in psychology (RUB, Bochum, Germany)
- Studied psychology, philosophy, dramatic arts, and German language (RUB, Germany; Harvard University, USA)
- Drama instructor (Unna, Germany)
Research interests:
- Serious Games and Resilience: I develop serious games and simulation environments to explore decision making covering topics with practical and societal importance, such as pandemics , financial and sustainable decision making.
- Decision in Marine Engineering: I study decision making in Marine Engineering using behavioral simulations.
- AI Ethics: I study the responsible use of LLMs and contemporary AI models (e.g., I investigate the impact on truthful communication).
- Bounded rationality, simple heuristics and decision making in Health, Finance, and Engineering: I am interested in decision making under uncertainty in applied settings spanning medicine, finance, and engineering. I study descriptive and normative properties of structurally simple human decision heuristics in indvidual and group settings.
- Behavioral ethics and moral psychology: I investigate the power of interventions and institutions in distributive justice, cooperation, punishment, and interpersonal commitments.
- Economic psychology and investment decisions: I study investment decisions and decision policies used by naive and professional investors, and explore economic interactions in incentivized experiments.
- Computer simulations: Using agent-based simulation methods and techniques from artificial life, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary computation, I study social interaction, decision making, and the performance of heuristics and strategies.
- Interdisciplinary projects: I transfer methodologies between disciplines and dovetail approaches originating in psychology, philosophy, machine learning, and economics.
Media mentions
- The Economist: https://www.economist.com/business/2020/02/27/when-rank-leads-to-rancour
- People Management: https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/voices/comment/why-ranking-staff-leads-to-destructive-competition
- IESE Insight: https://www.ieseinsight.com/doc.aspx?id=2143&idioma=2
Google scholar profile
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xTS1e48AAAAJ&hl=en
Artistic projects:
German drama workshop (Arizona State University, 2003), playwright
Teaching
Judgment and decision making; Cognitive, social, and statistical heuristics Gamification & Serious Games Behavioral ethics; Behavioral economics Bounded rationality; Organizational culture Negotiation; Strategic interactions Management Science; Business modelling
Contact Jan K.
