Dr Briony Pulford

I am a judgment and decision making researcher. After graduating from the University of Leicester I have taught in higher education since 1996 and at the University of Leicester since 2004. My interests are in overconfidence uncertainty the communication and perception of confidence cooperation team reasoning game theory trust moral judgment and ambiguity aversion. My research has applications in health/medical decision making financial decision making and legal decision making. My PhD was concerned with overconfidence in judgements but since then I have been working on how people perceive and interpret confidence and uncertainty in communication and how this affects decision making. This has influenced my recent research into advice taking and advice giving. I am also interested in how people trust advice and information from artificial intelligence and human-autonomy teaming and am a member of the Leicester AI Network (LAIN). 

I am a judgment and decision making researcher. My interests are in overconfidence uncertainty the communication and perception of confidence cooperation team reasoning game theory trust moral judgment and ambiguity aversion. My research has applications in health/medical decision making financial decision making and legal decision making. My PhD was concerned with overconfidence in judgements but since then I have been working on how people perceive and interpret confidence and uncertainty in communication and how this affects decision making. This has influenced my recent research into advice taking and advice giving.

I am also interested in how people trust advice and information from artificial intelligence and human-autonomy teaming. I have also carried out pedagogic research studying the personality factors that influence students’ confidence and beliefs about their academic abilities social comparisons in HE students and communication and advice giving in virtual learning environments. I am a member of the Leicester Judgment and Decision Making Lab. Much of my research is funded by the Leicester Judgment and Decision Making Endowment fund.

Pulford, B. D., Krockow, E. M., Pinto, D. G., & Colman, A. M. (in press). A five-factor integrative taxonomy of strategic reasoning in dyadic games. European Journal of Social Psychology.

Pulford, B. D., Colman, A. M., Buabang, E. K., & Krockow, E. M. (2018). The persuasive power of knowledge: Testing the confidence heuristic. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,147(10), 1431-1444. doi: 10.1037/xge0000471

Colman, A. M., Pulford, B. D., & Krockow, E. M. (2018). Persistent cooperation and gender differences in repeated prisoner’s dilemma games: Some things never change. Acta Psychologica (187), 1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.04.014

Pulford, B. D., Woodward, B., & Taylor, E. (2018). Do social comparisons in academic settings relate to gender and academic self-confidence? Social Psychology of Education, 21(3), 677-690. doi: 10.1007/s11218-018-9434-1

Pulford, B. D., Colman, A. M., & Lawrence, C. L., & Krockow, E. M. (2017). Reasons for cooperating in repeated interactions: Social value orientations, fuzzy traces, reciprocity, and activity bias. Decision, 4(2), 102-122. doi: 10.1037/dec0000057

Colman, A. M., Pulford, B. D., & Lawrence, C. L. (2014). Explaining strategic coordination: Cognitive hierarchy theory, strong Stackelberg reasoning, and team reasoning. Decision, 1(1), 35-58. doi: 10.1037/dec0000001

Gold, N., Colman, A. M. Pulford, B. D. (2014). Cultural differences in responses to real-life and hypothetical trolley problems. Judgment and Decision Making, 9(1), 65-76.

Colman, A. M., Pulford, B. D., & Rose, J. (2008). Collective rationality in interactive decisions: Evidence for team reasoning. Acta Psychologica, 128(2), 387-397.doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2007.08.003

Colman, A. M., Pulford, B. D., & Bolger, F. (2007). Asymmetric dominance and phantom decoy effects in games. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 104(2), 193-206. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2007.03.001

Pulford, B. D., & Colman, A. M. (1997). Overconfidence: Feedback and item difficulty effects. Personality and Individual Differences, 23(1), 125-133. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(97)00028-7

I am not currently taking any more PhD students.

As an Honorary Associate Professor I am currently only doing research and I am not teaching.

judgement and decision making; overconfidence; confidence; cooperation; advice giving and taking; certainty

Associate Editor Judgment and Decision Making (2020 - date)

Editorial Board Member Games (2020 - date)

PhD Psychology (University of Leicester) 1996.

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.