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Nicholas Chater

Psychology

Nicholas Chater

Professor of Behavioural Science, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

Nicholas Chater is Professor of Behavioural Science at the University of Warwick Business School.

He previously held posts at University College London (UCL) and the University of Oxford.

Chater has written about the psychology of language and decision-making. You can find his latest book, The Language Game, here (https://www.amazon.com/Language-Game-Improvisation-Created-Changed/dp/1541674987).

He also holds public policy advisory roles. He is a member of the advisory board of the Behavioural Insights Team, also known as the “Nudge Unit.” He is also a member of the UK Climate Change Committee, an independent body which advises the UK Parliament.

Chater is also the co-founder of the research consultancy firm, Decision Technologies Ltd.

Education
PhD Psychology/Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh · MA Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge
Topics
Psychology · Cognitive Science · Behavioural Science · Decision-Making · Psychology of Language · Co-Founder · Decision Technologies Ltd · Co-founder of Decision Technology Ltd (25 person research consultancy)

In the Encyclopedia1

Books4

  • Christiansen, M. H. & Chater, N. (2022). The language game. London, UK: Bantam Books/New York, NY: Basic Books.Christiansen, M. H. & Chater, N. (2022). The language game. London, UK: Bantam Books/New York, NY: Basic Books.2022
  • Muggleton, S. & Chater, N. (2021) (Eds). Human-like machine intelligence. Oxford, UK: Oxford UniversityPress.Muggleton, S. & Chater, N. (2021) (Eds). Human-like machine intelligence. Oxford, UK: Oxford UniversityPress.2021
  • Chater, N. (2018). The mind is flat. London: Penguin.Chater, N. (2018). The mind is flat. London: Penguin.2018
  • Christiansen, M. & Chater, N. (2016). Creating Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Christiansen, M. & Chater, N. (2016). Creating Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.2016

Talks & video3

Selected publications13

  1. 2021Sanborn, A. N., Heller, K., Austerweil, J. L., & Chater, N. (2021). REFRESH: A New Approach to Modeling Dimensional Biases in Perceptual Similarity and Categorization. Psychological Review
  2. 2020Oaksford, M. & Chater, N. (2020). New paradigms in the psychology of reasoning. Annual Review of Psychology, 71, 305–330.
  3. 2020Zhu, J., Sanborn, A., & Chater, N. (2020). The Bayesian sampler: Generic Bayesian inference causes incoherence in human probability judgments. Psychological Review, 127(5), 719-748.
  4. 2018Melkonyan, T., Zeitoun, H., & Chater, N. (2018). Collusion in Bertrand versus Cournot competition: A Virtual Bargaining Approach. Management Science.
  5. 2016Christiansen, M. & Chater, N. (2016). The Now-or-Never Bottleneck: A Fundamental Constraint on Language (Target Article). Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 39, e62.
  6. 2016Misyak, J., Noguchi, T., & Chater, N. (2016). Instantaneous conventions. Psychological Science, 27(12), 1550–1561.
  7. 2016Sanborn, A. N. & Chater, N. (2016). Bayesian brains without probabilities. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 113 (33), E4764-E4766.
  8. 2016Tsetsos, K., Chater, N., Moran, R., Moreland, J., Usher, M, & Summerfield, C. (2016). Economic irrationality is optimal during noisy decision-making. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
  9. 2014Tsetsos, K., Chater, N. & Usher, M. (2015). Examining the mechanisms underlying contextual preference reversal: Comment on MLBA (Trueblood, Brown and Heathcote, 2014). Psychological Review. 122, 838-847.
  10. 2014Misyak, J. B., & Chater, N. (2014). Virtual bargaining: a theory of social decision-making. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369(1655), 20130487.
  11. 2014Misyak, J. B., Melkonyan, T., Zeitoun, H., & Chater, N. (2014). Unwritten rules: virtual bargaining underpins social interaction, culture, and society. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(10), 512-519.
  12. Zeitoun, H., Melkonyan, T., & Chater, N. (in press). The social contract in miniature: How virtual bargaining supports team production. Academy of Management Review.
  13. Chater, N., Zeitoun, H., & Melkonyan, T. (in press). The paradox of social interaction: Shared intentionality, we-reasoning and virtual bargaining, Psychological Review.

Positions & affiliations12

  • University of Warwick
  • University College London
  • University of Oxford
  • Member, Advisory Board to the UK Cabinet Office’s Behavioural Insights Team (“Nudge Unit”)
  • Member, UK Climate Change Committee
  • 1989-1990 Lecturer in Psychology, UCL
  • 1990-1994 Lecturer in Psychology, University of Edinburgh
  • 1994-1996 Lecturer in Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford
  • 1996-2005 Professor of Psychology, University of Warwick
  • 2005-2010 Professor of Cognitive and Decision Sciences, UCL
  • 2010-present Professor of Behavioural Science, University of Warwick Business School
  • Advisory Board, Cabinet Office's Behavioural Insight Team (BIT), a.k.a. “The Nudge Unit”

Credentials & fellowships5

  • 2001-2006 Associate Editor, Cognitive Science
  • 2005-2009 Associate Editor, Psychological Review
  • 2009-2011 Associate Editor, Psychological Science
  • 2012-Present Associate Editor, Management Science
  • 2019-Present Board of Reviewing Editors, Science

Honours & awards15

  • 1995 BPS Cognitive Psychology Award (with Mike Oaksford).
  • 1996 Spearman Medal British BPS Annual prize for psychological research.
  • 1997 4 th Experimental Psychology Society Prize
  • 2009 BPS Cognitive Psychology Award (with Gordon Brown and Ian Neath).
  • 2010 Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society
  • 2012 Fellow of the British Academy
  • 2014 Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science
  • 2019 Winner PROSE Best Book Award (Category: Clinical Psychology) for The Mind is Flat.
  • 2006-2009 Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship on the topic Fundamental Principles of Cognition.
  • 2011-2013 Haggard, P. & Chater, N. Decision time for free will. Templeton Foundations ($400,000 split between UCL and Warwick)
  • 2012-2017 Chater, N. Cognitive and Social Foundations of Rationality. ERC Advanced Grant. (approximately, 2M Euro).
  • 2012-2016 Starmer, Brown, Sugden, Chater et al. Network for Integrated Behavioural Science, ESRC (approximately, £3M)
  • 2013-2017 Loomes, G. (PI), Chater, N. et al. Behavioural Economics of Value. Leverhulme Trust (900K)
  • 2015-2019 Griffiths, N. (PI), Chater, N. et al. The Cooperative Car. EPSRC/Jaguar Land Rover (£2M).
  • 2017-2021 Starmer, Brown, Sugden, Chater et al. Network for Integrated Behavioural Science 2, ESRC