Richard Gonzalez
Center Director, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research
Co-Director, BioSocial Methods Collaborative
Amos N Tversky Collegiate Professor, Psychology and Statistics, LSA
Professor of Integrative Systems and Design, College of Engineering
| E-mail: | Email Richard Gonzalez |
| Address: | Research Center for Group Dynamics Institute for Social Research University of Michigan 426 Thompson Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 |
| Phone: | 734-647-6785 |
About Me
I received my PhD in 1990 from Stanford University in Psychology. I worked with Phoebe Ellsworth studying psychology and law and with Amos Tversky studying mathematical modeling and judgment and decision making. I spent seven years at the University of Washington’s Psychology department, a sabbatical year at Princeton University, and have been at the University of Michigan’s Psychology department since 1997. More about me >>
Research
My research interests focus on judgment and decision making (JDM). Given that so many topics in psychology are related to JDM it makes it look as though I work on many different topics. Actually, I see a simple theme across all my research. I am interested in how people make judgments and what influences their decisions and choices. More about Research >>
People
I’ve been fortunate to work with amazing colleagues, coauthors, collaborators, and students throughout my career. Read about People >>
Teaching
- Theories of Social Psychology
- General Linear Modeling Course
- Multivariate Statistics
- Generalized Linear Modeling Course
- Structural Equations Modeling Course
- Statistics Animation Page
- Design Science PhD Program
Recent Posts
Emotion primes implicit and explicit preference for ‘green’ products
We may feel we have a preference for the material of an object, such as whether a bowl we are about to buy is made of natural wood or plastic. In this paper we show that those preferences may not be fixed nor reflective of an underlying trait.
Psychological theory wagging the statistical tail
The transactional model has had a major influence in the theories of development over a couple of decades. In this chapter I explore some areas of opportunity for developing statistical methodology to facilitate novel tests of the model’s predictions. The transactional model focuses on dynamic multivariate processes with individual differences (heterogeneity) across multiple interacting individuals; these are areas of active methodological research.
Is advice treated the same way as evidence in a learning task?
This paper we investigate several mathematical models of learning and extend them to include advice from others as part of the learning mechanism. We find that a type of reinforcement learning model does well at accounting for the explore-exploit behavior present in the experimental task, and accounts for the data better than Bayesian models. We designed a second study to tease apart model predictions.
Culture and aesthetic preference
We show systematic cultural differences in preference for art and in picture taking. For example, we find a cultural difference in the choice of zoom that participants select when taking a portrait of a model. Japanese participants zoom out to capture the model in the context, whereas American participants zoom in on the face of the model.
