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Portrait of Haoran (Matt) Wan

Haoran (Matt) Wan

Behavioral scientist · Decision-making across the adult lifespan

About me

My research examines how age and income shape decision-making across the adult lifespan, with a focus on delay and probability discounting — how people value rewards that are delayed, uncertain, or both, including outcomes that are simultaneously delayed and probabilistic. I study how personality, cognitive ability, and financial resources — financial security and financial literacy — shape the way older and younger adults weigh these attributes when making decisions.

A central focus of this work is attribute weighting: how strongly each dimension of an outcome — its amount, delay, or probability — counts toward its value, and how that weighting changes when several dimensions must be considered at once. I examine how the salience of each attribute and an individual’s cognitive ability govern this process, and how the resulting weights vary with factors such as age, income, and personality.

I am completing my Ph.D. in Psychological & Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and I hold a B.A. in Economics and Psychology from Reed College. I am an incoming Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at Duke Kunshan University, where I am establishing the Lifespan Decision Science Lab.

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