Gretchen Chapman

Professor and Department Head Carnegie Mellon University

  • Pittsburgh PA

Gretchen Chapman's research combines judgment and decision-making with health psychology.

Contact

Carnegie Mellon University

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Biography

Gretchen Chapman has been a Professor in Social & Decision Sciences since 2017. Prior to joining the faculty at CMU, Dr. Chapman was a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University where she served as Department Chair of Psychology and Acting Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Science. She is the recipient of an APA early career award and a NJ Psychological Association Distinguished Research Award, a fellow of APA and APS. She is a former senior editor at Psychological Science, a past president of the Society for Judgment & Decision Making, the author of more than 100 journal articles, and the recipient of 20 years of continuous external funding.

Areas of Expertise

Health Behavior
Decision Research
Field Experiments‎
Decision Processes
Risk Preferences
Default Effect
Behavorial Game Theory
Public Health Analysis

Media Appearances

Workplace requirements a strong tool to reduce COVID-19 risk: expert

McKnight's Senior Living  online

2023-01-12

But, Chapman said, mask-wearing is an example of the “power of situation.” “We behave in different ways in different situations depending on the context. The important part of context is social norms, or what other people are doing,” she said. “If we can structure the situation so mask-wearing looks like the normative thing to do, then a lot of folks are going to follow along and follow that norm.”

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It’s Time to Wear a Mask Again, Health Experts Say

New York Times  print

2022-12-13

"Realistically, not everyone in the United States — or a certain city — will wear a mask. In fact, you might find yourself the only person in a store or on a plane who’s wearing one. Don’t let that discourage you. For one thing, remember that no one is thinking about you as much as you think they are. In social psychology, this is called the spotlight illusion, said Gretchen Chapman, a professor of social and decision sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. 'I may feel that everyone’s staring at me because I’m wearing a mask, but chances are that’s like the 11th thing on their list to worry about,' she said.

What’s more, Dr. Chapman said, 'There are lots of situations in life where we do something that makes us feel awkward, but if we think it’s important enough, we do it anyway.'”

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Scaling the cost of government programs using a cost-per-person price tag improves comprehension by the general public

Phys Org  online

2022-07-04

"When President Trump wanted to spend $10 billion on the border wall, conservatives were saying it was a great idea while liberals were saying why spend that much money on a wall," said Gretchen Chapman, department head and professor of Social and Decision Sciences at CMU. Chapman is the senior author on the study. "This got our team thinking, and we began by asking how big is $10 billion, and how do people really think about such a really big number?"

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Social

Industry Expertise

Health and Wellness
Public Policy

Accomplishments

Distinguished Research Award, New Jersey Psychological Association

2011

Society for Medical Decision Making Award for Outstanding Paper by a Young Investigator

2000

American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Awards for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology

1998/1999

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Education

University of Pennsylvania

Ph.D.

Psychology

1990

Bryn Mawr College

A.B.

Psychology

1985

Affiliations

  • Association for Psychological Science : Fellow
  • American Psychological Association : Fellow
  • Society for Judgment & Decision Making : Past President
  • Psychological Science : Former Senior Editor
  • European Association of Decision Making : Member
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Languages

  • English

Event Appearances

Panelists for session on “Leveraging psychological science to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake during a public health emergency.”

(2022) Association for Psychological Science Meeting  

Panel presentation "Large numbers cause magnitude misinterpretation: The case of government expenditures"

(2022) AAAS Meeting  

Panelist "Psychology of vaccine hesitancy"

(2021) Association for Health Care Journalists, Summit on Mental Health  Virtual

Research Grants

"Lay understanding of vaccine efficacy"

Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS

Gretchen Chapman, PI; Alison Butler, co-PI. NSF SES-2149406, 02/01/2022 – 1/31/2023

“Improving pediatric donor heart availability through in-depth collaboration between behavioral and clinical sciences”

Enduring Hearts Foundation

Justin Godown, PI; Gretchen Chapman, co-I. 7/01/2021 – 6/30/2023

“Don't Throw Your Heart Away: Decision Processes Explain the High Discard Rate of Pediatric Donor Hearts,”

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Alison Butler, PI; Gretchen Chapman, Faculty Mentor. NIH F30 HL152526-01, 7/15/2020 – 7/24/2024,

Articles

Information and Vaccination: When Does Communication Reduce Hesitancy?

SSRN

2023

Although vaccines are the most effective tool for reducing the morbidity and mortality caused by infectious disease, their impact is reduced due to vaccine hesitancy and insufficient uptake. Because delaying or declining vaccination is correlated with beliefs that vaccines are unsafe and ineffective, a traditional approach to deal with these issues is health education, which is widely adopted by policymakers and organizations in a variety of health domains. Studies on information interventions, however, have a mixed track record, with some showing an effect on beliefs, attitudes, intentions, or behavior and others showing no effect and a few even backfiring. Given these mixed findings, it is relevant to identify the conditions under which information is more (or less) successful in creating meaningful change. In this chapter, we synthesize evidence from information provision interventions to fill this gap in the literature. To that end, we first conceptualize what we mean by ‘information’ in the context of information provision interventions. In addition, we classify information provision interventions based on informational (i.e., message content) and non-informational elements (e.g., message source) that researchers have experimentally manipulated.

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Perceptions of pediatric deceased donor consent: A survey of organ procurement organizations

Pediatric Transplantation

2023

Background
Children awaiting transplantation face a high risk of waitlist mortality due to a shortage of pediatric organ donors. Pediatric donation consent rates vary across Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs), suggesting that some OPOs might utilize more effective pediatric-focused donor recruitment techniques than others. An online survey of 193 donation requestor staff sheds light on the strategies that OPO staff utilize when approaching potential pediatric deceased organ donors.
Methods
In collaboration with the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations, the research team contacted the executive directors and medical directors of all 57 of the OPOs in the US. Of these, 51 OPOs agreed to participate, and 47 provided contact information for donation requestor staff. Of the 379 staff invited to participate in the survey, 193 provided complete responses.

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A randomized trial of behavioral Nudges delivered through Text messages to increase influenza vaccination among patients with an upcoming primary care visit

American Journal of Health Promotion

2023

Purpose
To evaluate if nudges delivered by text message prior to an upcoming primary care visit can increase influenza vaccination rates.
Design
Randomized, controlled trial.
Setting
Two health systems in the Northeastern US between September 2020 and March 2021.
Subjects
74,811 adults.
Interventions
Patients in the 19 intervention arms received 1-2 text messages in the 3 days preceding their appointment that varied in their format, interactivity, and content.

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