Yaniv Hanoch is a professor of decision science at the University of Wolverhampton Business School. Dr. Hanoch’s research examines decision-making and risk-taking across the lifespan and domains. In particular, he has been investigating the underlying mechanisms involved in falling prey to scams and what can be done to improve resilience to scam solicitations. In addition, he is interested in questions regarding health/medical decision-making, such as the impact of optimism bias on risk perception, how lifespan changes impact risk-taking and decision-making across domains, and decisions regarding sustainability (e.g., meat consumption). His research has been published in leading journals such as American Psychologist, Current Directions in Psychological Science, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, Health Psychology, Health Service Research, Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Process, Psychological Science, Risk Analysis, and many others. He currently serves as an associate editor for the journal Judgment and Decision Making and as co-editor-in-chief for the Journal of Economic Psychology. In addition, he has worked with the U.K. Cabinet Office and produced several official publications. His work has been featured in The Guardian, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other media outlets.
Stacey Wood is the Molly Mason Jones Professor of Psychology at Scripps College and is board-certified in geropsychology. Dr. Wood received a BA in biopsychology from Middlebury College and an MA and PhD in clinical neuropsychology from the University of Houston. She completed further training as an intern at the University of Arizona and as a National Institute of Mental Health–funded postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Wood is an expert in elder abuse, decisional capacity, and undue influence. She works as a clinician and consultant for California Adult Protective Services and has qualified as an expert more than 40 times in court proceedings, including those related to conservatorships, financial elder abuse, and fraud. Dr. Wood frequently serves as an appointed expert for the courts in Southern California on issues related to capacity, undue influence, and financial elder exploitation; has published more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals related to her work on decisional capacity and susceptibility to fraud; and has received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Justice, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Haynes Foundation, and the Borchard Foundation, among others. She consults with the National Institute of Justice as a content expert on fraud and financial exploitation of seniors.
Marguerite DeLiema is a gerontologist and assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota. She is the associate director of education at the Center for Healthy Aging and Innovation and the faculty advisor for the student-led Aging Studies Interdisciplinary Group. She also holds the 2024–2025 Fesler Lampert Chair in Aging Studies and is a TIAA Institute fellow. Using both quantitative and qualitative research methods, Dr. DeLiema studies financial victimization using focus groups, in-depth interviews, experiments, surveys, and panel data. She regularly collaborates with financial institutions, AARP, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Investor Education Foundation, and U.S. federal protection agencies to analyze fraud victimization risk factors and test efforts to inoculate consumers from fraud and abuse through enhanced consumer education and advance care planning interventions. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Justice, the National Institute on Aging, the Social Security Administration, the Administration for Community Living, AARP, and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.
S. Duke Han is a diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology; a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the National Academy of Neuropsychology, and the International Neuropsychological Society; and a tenured professor of psychology, family medicine, neurology, and gerontology at the University of Southern California (USC). Dr. Han is interested in factors that impact cognition and decision-making in aging. He also has special interests in leveraging novel empirical approaches to better understand these factors. In addition to directing his own extramurally funded research lab, he serves as the co-leader of the Research and Education Core for the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center; co-director of the Scientific Research Network in Decision Neuroscience of Aging and Open Measurement Network Initiative for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, respectively; and editor-in-chief for The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences. His work has been featured in multiple media outlets, including CNN, Reuters, CBS, PBS, Forbes, Fox Business News, and U.S. News and World Report.
Peter A. Lichtenberg is the former director of The Institute of Gerontology (1999–2024) and a distinguished professor of psychology and gerontology at Wayne State University. He received his BA from Washington University in St. Louis and his MA and PhD in clinical psychology from Purdue University. After his internship he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in geriatric neuropsychology at the University of Virginia Medical School, where he also became a faculty member. Dr. Lichtenberg, one of the first board-certified clinical geropsychologists in the nation, has made contributions to the practice of psychology across a variety of areas and is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of financial capacity and financial exploitation among older adults and the impact of early memory loss and dementia on financial decision-making, financial exploitation, and financial capacity. He has authored seven books and more than 225 articles in geropsychology. He served as president of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) in 2022 and as chairman of the GSA Board of Directors in 2023. In 2024 he received the Donald Kent Award for leadership in gerontology, one of the highest honors given by the GSA.
Commentary
Jacob M. Stanley is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Temple University in the Neuroeconomics Laboratory. His research examines the cognitive and neural mechanisms that shape vulnerability in complex social and economic decisions. He is particularly interested in how people navigate decision environments marked by high computational demands, uncertainty, unfairness, and social manipulation—and why some individuals are more susceptible to maladaptive or exploitative outcomes than others. Using neuroimaging, computational approaches, and transcranial electrical stimulation, his work investigates how cognitive control, affective salience, and valuation processes interact during decision-making. More broadly, his research aims to identify factors that protect against vulnerability and to inform interventions for high-stakes real-world contexts, including fraud and financial exploitation. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation.
David V. Smith is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Temple University, where he directs the Neuroeconomics Laboratory and serves as associate director of Temple’s Brain Research and Imaging Center. His research examines the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying responses to social and economic incentives and how those responses shape decision-making across the lifespan. He is particularly interested in how people evaluate rewards, decide whom to trust, and cooperate with others—and why these processes go awry in some individuals but not others. Combining neuroimaging, computational modeling, and transcranial electrical stimulation, his work aims to advance basic understanding and inform translational applications in clinical and policy contexts. His research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Aging. He has been named a rising star and fellow by the Association for Psychological Science and a fellow of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society. At Temple, he has received the Psychology Honors Excellence in Mentoring Award and the College of Liberal Arts’ Presidential Faculty Award for excellence in teaching and mentoring.
