About me

I am an interdisciplinary researcher between (micro)economics, psychology, and (decision) neuroscience, a Chair Professor of Economics at Lancaster University Management School, and Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Economic Psychology. I have been full professor at the Universities of Zurich, Cologne, and Konstanz, associate professor at the Universities of Vienna and Salamanca, and a frequent Visiting Professor at New York University-Abu Dhabi. I am from Spain, speak German fluently, and currently split my time between Switzerland and the U.K.

My research focuses on understanding and improving human economic decisions, ranging from decisions under risk to strategic decisions (game theory) and voting. For that I use decision neuroscience ("neuroeconomics"), behavioral experiments, and mathematical modeling. I maintain a "Decisions and the Brain" blog at Psychology Today and a personal blog at Wordpress.

Selected Publications

See all publications

• Why Is Choice Stochastic? Deliberate Randomization vs. Strength of Preference, C. Alós-Ferrer, J. Buckenmaier, M. Garagnani, and A. Rustichini, Management Science, forthcoming. Author-Generated Version (Open Access).
• Errors, Fast and Slow, C. Alós-Ferrer and M. Garagnani, Cognitive Psychology, 2026. Journal Link (Open Access).
• Improving Numerical Measures of Human Feelings: The Case of Pain, M. Garagnani, P. Schweinhardt, P. Tobler, and C. Alós-Ferrer, Social Science and Medicine, 2025. Journal Link
• An Inexpensive Method to Measure Latent Toxoplasmosis and its Behavioral Consequences, A. Achtziger, C. Alós-Ferrer, and M. Garagnani, Acta Psychologica, 2025. Journal Link
• A Characterization of the Luce Choice Rule for an Arbitrary Collection of Menus, C. Alós-Ferrer and M. Mihm, Journal of Economic Theory, 2025. Journal Link
• Part-Time Bayesians: Incentives and Behavioral Heterogeneity in Belief Updating, C. Alós-Ferrer and M. Garagnani, Management Science, 2023. Journal Link (Open Access).
• Generous with individuals and Selfish to the Masses, C. Alós-Ferrer, J. García-Segarra, and A. Ritschel, Nature Human Behavior, 2022. SharedIt Link.
• Time Will Tell: Recovering Preferences When Choices Are Noisy, C. Alós-Ferrer, E. Fehr, and N. Netzer. Journal of Political Economy, 2021. Journal Link.
• True to Which Self? Lay Rationalism and Decision Satisfaction in Self-Control Conflicts, M.D. Kokkoris, E. Hoelzl, and C. Alós-Ferrer, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2019. APA Link.
• A Review Essay on Social Neuroscience: Can Research on the Social Brain and Economics Inform Each Other?, C. Alós-Ferrer, Journal of Economic Literature, 2018. Journal Link.
• Fast or Rational? A Response-Times Study of Bayesian Updating, A. Achtziger and C. Alós-Ferrer, Management Science, 2014. Journal Link