People: Faculty
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Wändi Bruine de Bruin
 Assistant Professor Ph.D.: Carnegie Mellon University Office: PH 208H Phone: (412) 268-3237 Fax: (412) 268-6938 View curriculum vitae Centers Center for Risk Perception and Communication Center for Behavioral Decision Research View list of all SDS faculty |
Research Interests My research focuses on risk perception, decision-making competence, and mental models of decision-relevant knowledge, which are all important elements for developing effective risk communications. Each of these themes combines basic and applied approaches, aiming to understand the factors shaping real-world judgments and decisions, and relies on interdisciplinary collaborations with domain experts, such as economists, engineers, and physicians. With my work, I aim to inform the design of behaviorally realistic interventions and policies helping people to make more informed decisions about significant topics such as health, finance, and understanding new technologies. Risk Perception This line of my research has examined the validity of people's probability judgments. My colleagues and I found that even adolescents judged probabilities of significant life events (e.g., of getting pregnant in the next year), as reported on the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 were sensibly and significantly correlated to concurrent responses (e.g., about sexual activity in the past year) (Fischhoff, Parker, Bruine de Bruin, Downs, Palmgren, Dawes, & Manski, POQ, 2000). Subsequent analyses found that adolescent's probability judgments also predicted whether the event (e.g., getting a high school diploma, pregnancy) occurred (Bruine de Bruin, Parker, & Fischhoff, JAH, 2007). This work, and that of others, has encouraged economists to advocate the use of risk judgments in economic modeling of people's decisions. Because adolescents can even predict whether they will test positive for Chlamydia on a clinical test (Bruine de Bruin, Downs, Murray, & Fischhoff, MDM, in press), these probability judgments are also useful for physicians providing STI testing to adolescents. Decision-making competence My colleagues and I have developed and validated a scale of Decision-Making Competence (Bruine de Bruin, Parker, & Fischhoff, JPSP, 2007), or how well people make decisions. Performance on the overall decision-making competence measure is correlated to an independently developed measure of real-world life decision outcomes (such as going bankrupt and being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes), even after controlling for general cognitive ability and socio-economic status. The scale has been added to national surveys of older adults, to examine the role of decision-making competence in their health and retirement decisions. Risk communication Using insights from our risk perception and decision-making research, my colleagues and I have developed several interventions aiming to help people to make more informed decisions about specific topics. For our most ambitious project, we developed an interactive video DVD targeting the sexual decisions of female adolescents (www.whatcouldyoudo.org). It used the mental models approach, developed here at Carnegie Mellon, which focuses intervention content on decision-relevant information that is not being effectively implemented by the target audience. In a randomized clinical longitudinal trial, we found that, compared to controls, those watching the DVD reduced sexual activity, increased consistent and correct condom use, and were less likely to be diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections. Some of my current projects include (a) examining the role of decision-making competence and decision-making styles in real-world decisions; (b) examining the role of emotions in responses to risk communication, (c) measuring inflation expectations and how they are related to financial decisions, and (d) public perceptions of carbon capture and sequestration. Copies of my publications, including the ones below, can be requested by email or from http://cbdr.cmu.edu/papers/. Selected Publications Bruine de Bruin, W., Downs, J.S., Murray, P.M., & Fischhoff, B. (2009). Can Female Adolescents Tell Whether They Will Test Positive for Chlamydia Infection? Medical Decision Making, August 2009. Bruine de Bruin, W., Fischhoff, B., Brilliant, L., & Caruso, D. (2006). Expert judgments of pandemic influenza risks. Global Public Health, 1, 178-193. Bruine de Bruin, W., Fischhoff, B., Güvenç, Ü., Caruso, D., & Armstrong, C. (2009). A model-based scenario approach to communicating the risks of xenotransplantation. Risk Analysis, 29, 1105-1115. Bruine de Bruin, W., Fischhoff, B., Millstein, S.G. & Halpern-Felsher, B.L. (2000). Verbal and numerical expressions of probability: "It's a fifty-fifty chance." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 81, 115-131. Bruine de Bruin, W., Parker, A.M., & Fischhoff, B. (2007). Can teens predict significant life events? Journal of Adolescent Health, 41, 208-210. Bruine de Bruin, W., Parker, A.M., & Fischhoff, B. (2007). Individual differences in Adult Decision-Making Competence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 938-956. Downs, J.S., Murray, P.J., Bruine de Bruin, W., White, J.P., Palmgren, C. & Fischhoff, B. (2004). Interactive Video Behavioral Intervention to Reduce Adolescent Females' STD Risk: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Social Science & Medicine, 59, 1561-1572. Fischhoff, B., Parker, A.M., Bruine de Bruin, W., Downs, J.S., Palmgren, C., Dawes, R. & Manski, C. (2000). Teen expectations for significant life events. Public Opinion Quarterly, 64, 189-205. |