Postdoctoral Fellow, Behavioral Science of Ethics and Decision-Making (EXPIRED)

Professors Christopher Chabris and Michelle Meyer are seeking an outstanding researcher for a position as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Geisinger Health System. The postdoc will carry out behavioral science research on decision-making within the contexts of healthcare, ethics, policy, and economics. Specific research topics may include, but are not limited to:

• How people make welfare-affecting decisions for themselves and for others
• Attitudes about randomized experiments (e.g., A/B testing, cluster randomized trials)
• Beliefs about the boundaries between the moral and commercial domains (i.e., whether “some things should not be for sale”)
• Attitudes toward inequality
• Public understanding of genetic influences on behavior and health
• The effectiveness of informed consent in clinical and research settings
• “Nudges” and other lightweight behavioral interventions to improve decisions

The postdoc will report to Professors Chabris and Meyer, will collaborate with other researchers across disciplines at Geisinger, and will be based in either Danville or Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The postdoc will assist in planning and carrying out web-based surveys, field studies, and archival research, and in analyzing general patterns of responses as well as individual differences. S/he will be expected to employ a combination of approaches, from the identification and analysis of existing real-world data sets, to the design and analysis of field or lab intervention studies that collect process and outcome measures of decision making in various domains related to ethics and healthcare. We are particularly interested in candidates with strong statistical and/or computational skills. Other duties include contribution to ongoing research projects, preparation of talks and participation in seminars, and drafting reports, grant applications, and papers for publication.

Required qualifications:

• A Ph.D. (completed by start of employment) in psychology, economics, decision sciences, marketing, experimental philosophy, or any other relevant scientific discipline
• Training in behavioral science research methods, including experimentation and multivariate data analysis

• Experience with statistical software (preferably R, others acceptable)

Desired qualifications:

• Scientific publications
• Experience in interdisciplinary research, working in collaborative teams, and managing research assistants
• Experience with econometrics, modeling, and/or programming (e.g., Python)

Duration: This is a one-year position with the expectation of renewal for additional years conditional on performance.

To apply: Please send a brief cover letter, C.V., and two representative publications or manuscripts in a single email to [email protected]. Please include names, titles, and contact information for two references. Questions about the position may also be sent to the same address. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

Geisinger Health System is a large, integrated health services organization that, through its 12 hospital campuses, serves more than 3 million residents throughout 45 counties in central, south-central and northeastern Pennsylvania, and in southern New Jersey. As a learning health care system, Geisinger integrates research into all aspects of medicine and healthcare delivery. Research at Geisinger benefits from the system's 20 years of electronic health records, its clinical data warehouse, and its rapidly growing biobank (more than 180,000 patient-participants consented for whole exome genetic sequencing, with over 92,000 exomes sequenced to date). Geisinger's main campus in Danville, PA, is located within a three-hour drive of New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.

Professor Chabris: http://www.chabris.com

Professor Meyer: http://www.michellenmeyer.com

Research at Geisinger Health System: https://www.geisinger.edu/research

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