Retirement decision making has two phases: saving for retirement (accumulation) and spending during retirement (decumulation). My research focuses on the relatively understudied second phase. Many Americans make suboptimal spending decisions in retirement -- they begin collecting Social Security retirement benefits too soon and they choose lump sums over annuities (which provide guaranteed lifetime income). My research investigates why retirees make these suboptimal decisions and how to nudge them to make better decisions, whether through changing the choice architecture (i.e., changing how decisions are presented) or through training decision makers to approach the choice differently.

In negotiations, different strategies fit different roles and different people. For example, in a negotiation about the price of a used car, a vigilant strategy emphasizing the reservation or walk-away price matches the buyer's goal of minimizing losses (paying as little as possible), whereas an eager strategy emphasizing the aspiration or ideal price matches the seller's goal of maximizing gains (making as much as possible). Negotiators who experience a fit between their strategy and role, strategy and personal orientation (i.e., regulatory focus), or role and personal orientation, feel better as they prepare for the negotiation and are more demanding.

There is long-standing interest in individual differences (e.g., analytical vs. intuitive style, attitude toward risk, cognitive ability, motivation), but our understanding of their effects is still limited. To improve our understanding, we should (1) be more systematic in our investigations, (2) emphasize theoretically relevant individual differences (e.g., decision competence measures for research on decision outcomes), (3) explore interactions between individual differences and task features, situational factors, and/or other individual differences, and (4) encourage wider, more extensive communication of results. The Decision Making Individual Differences Inventory (DMIDI), which catalogues and describes over 170 measures commonly used in judgment and decision-making research, is intended to assist researchers and practitioners in pursuing these aims.