Dr Ivo Vlaev

Biography

Ivo received a DPhil (PhD) in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford (and St. John's College) and MSc in Cognitive Science and BSc in Psychology from the New Bulgarian University.

Before coming to Imperial, Ivo worked as a researcher at University College London, Decision Technology Ltd and the University of Warwick. He has a track record of research in cognitive psychology, behavioural economics and behavioural finance, which is published in peer-reviewed academic journals, book chapters and government reports.

Research

How does the mind/brain integrate information to evaluate experiences, values, or risks? How does it strike a balance between stability and context sensitivity in judgment and decision making? What neural mechanisms underlie this fundamental cognitive ability? This is the focus of Ivo's research, which is to advance understanding of human decision making. It is a convergence of psychology, neuroscience and economics, which achieves results that none of the disciplines can achieve by themselves. This research also illustrates how the synergy of methods such as experimentation, brain imaging, and quantitative modeling can achieve results that neither method can achieve alone.

Key research interests are human decision-making in various domains (social, financial, medical). Specific research topics are risk attitudes, behaviour change, consumer psychology, behavioural finance, cooperation, well-being.

Consulting

Ivo's previous consulting work related to consumers' risk perception funded by the Institute of Actuaries, London. He has also worked on consulting projects on consumer price perception, consumer trust, and brand memory funded by large retailers. His recent work with various public organisations is on applying behaviour change principles to change people’s decisions about their health, finances and environment.