Note: I am currently entering the first year of my MRes, and so do not yet have a research project decided, see summary

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How do people make choices in an uncertain and complex world? My objective is to study this broad question and discover ways to improve decision-making by individuals, groups and organisations. I find it intuitive that we should augment classical models by considering emotions, cognitive limitations and implicit biases to describe behaviour accurately. For example, in 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' (Kahneman, 2011),1 the availability heuristic, which states that people substitute the ease of remembering an event with an assessment of the event's probability, resonates with me. Shortcuts such as this can influence a wide range of decisions, and good models of behaviour could complement classical microeconomic theory by taking account of these. I would like to deepen my understanding of such models and contribute to their development. I would also like to develop applications of behavioural insights to public policy.