Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment (Edge)

Rick Larrick

Faculty Director

Rick Larrick is the Hanes Corporation Foundation Professor of Management and Organizations and the Faculty Director for the Center for Energy, Development and Global Environment (EDGE) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. As EDGE Faculty Director, Dr. Larrick helps facilitate Fuqua faculty involvement in research and teaching on energy and the environment. He also works to build connections between Fuqua and other members of the larger Duke University community interested in energy and the environment.

His research focuses on environmental and energy decisions by consumers, employees, and the general public. Dr. Larrick published an article in Science in June 2008 with Jack Soll called “The MPG Illusion” showing that the common fuel efficiency measure “Miles per Gallon” produces systematic misjudgments by car buyers, leading consumers to undervalue improvements on inefficient vehicles. The authors recommended a consumption metric (“Gallons per 100 Miles”) as a measure that was more useful to consumers. The research was featured in the New York Times Magazine’s Year in Ideas in December, 2008 and influenced the inclusion of Gallons per 100 Miles on the current fuel economy label for new automobiles. His more recent research has examined additional ways to make energy consumption more understandable and useful to consumers. For a summary of these ideas, see Larrick, Soll, and Keeney’s (2015) article in the journal Behavioral Science and Policy.

Dr. Larrick also conducts research on different ways to improve decision making, including using the “Wisdom of Crowds”. He has published in leading psychology, management, and general science journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Review, Academy of Management Journal, Management Science, Nature Climate Change, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and is an associate editor for the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and the journal Management Science. He teaches courses on Leadership, Ethics, and Organizations and on Critical Thinking and Collaboration. Dr. Larrick holds a secondary appointment in the Duke’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience.

Dr. Larrick was the 2017 President of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and the 2015 recipient of Bank of America Award Faculty Award, the Fuqua School of Business’s highest faculty award given for outstanding contributions in research, teaching, and service.

Prior to joining Duke, he taught at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. Dr. Larrick received his B.A. in psychology and economics at the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Michigan.

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