Andrew M. Parker is director of the Center for Decision Making under Uncertainty, a senior behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation, and a member of the Pardee RAND Graduate School faculty. His research applies core concepts in behavioral decision research to the understanding of decisions in complex, real-world situations. He has led or contributed to RAND projects on decision quality, risk perception, and individual differences, involving such content domains as health and financial behavior, aging, emergency preparedness and community resilience, climate change, and psychological health. Past projects have addressed low-income consumption decisions, adolescent sexual and contraceptive behavior, retirement planning, drug and alcohol use, expectations for major life events, and public responses to risk information. Parker was principal investigator on a National Science Foundation-funded project validating an adult measure of decision-making competence, which has been used to predict major life outcomes. He currently co-leads a National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases-funded project examining how influenza risk perceptions propogate across social networks and influence vaccination decisions. He received a B.A. in psychology and statistics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; an M.S. in statistics and an M.S. behavioral decision theory, both from Carnegie Mellon University; and a Ph.D. in behavioral decision theory, also from Carnegie Mellon.
Selected Publications
Schlesinger, M., Grob, R., Shaller, D., Martino, S.C., Parker, A.M., Finucane, M.L., Cerully, J.L., & Rybowski, L., "Taking patients’ narratives about clinicians from anecdote to science," New England Journal of Medicine, 373(7), 2015
Nowak, S., & Parker, A.M., "Social Network Effects of Non-Lifesaving, Early-Stage Breast Cancer Detection on Mammography Rates," American Journal of Public Health, 104, 2014
Parker, A.M., Vardavas, R., Markum, C.S., Gidengil, C.A., "Herd immunity as a conscious consideration (or not) in individual influenza vaccination decisions," American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 45(1), 2013
Bruine de Bruin, W., Parker, A. M., & Fischhoff, B., "Individual differences in Adult Decision-Making Competence," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 2007
Hudomiet, P., Parker, A.M., & Rohwedder, S., "Cognitive ability, personality, and pathways to retirement: An exploratory study," Work, Aging, and Retirement (forthcoming)
Parker, A.M., Bruine de Bruin, W., Fischhoff, B., & Weller, J.A., "Robustness of Decision-Making Competence: Evidence from two measures and an 11-year longitudinal study," Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (forthcoming)
Strough, J., Bruine de Bruin, W., & Parker, A.M., "Taking the biggest first: Age differences in preferences for monetary and hedonic sequences," Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences (forthcoming)
Nowak, S.A., Matthews, L., & Parker, A.M., A general agent-based model of social learning, RAND Corporation (RR-1768), 2017
