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Dr Yasmina Okan

Dr Yasmina Okan

Profile

Dr. Yasmina Okan is a Ramón y Cajal Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Communication at Pompeu Fabra University (Spain) and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Decision Research at Leeds University Business School. Previously she held positions as a Lecturer (2013-2018) and as an Associate Professor in Behavioral Decision Making (2018-2022) at Leeds University Business School. She has also been a visiting researcher at different international institutions including the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Germany) and Wake Forest University (US). Her research has been supported by grants from Cancer Research UK, the US Informed Medical Decisions Foundation, the Worldwide Universities Network, and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Yasmina is a Fellow of the Psychonomic Society, in recognition of international reputation for excellence in the psychological sciences, and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, in recognition of attainment against the UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and learning support in higher education. She has received awards in recognition of excellence in teaching, including the Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence (2015) and the Management Division Teaching Award (2016) from Leeds University Business School. Between 2018 and 2022 she was the President for the Society of the Advancement of Judgment and Decision Making Studies (SEJyD).

Research interests

Yasmina's research focuses on the psychology of judgment and decision making, with an emphasis on health risk perception and communication. Among other questions, her work has examined how risks and benefits of medical treatments, screenings or lifestyles are conveyed to the public, how people respond to commonly used risk communication formats (e.g., simple graphs), and how to design communications that can reach diverse audiences (e.g., varying in the ability to understand numbers and/or graphs) and support informed decision making.

Example projects include work examining how people interpret public communications about cancer screening (e.g., the NHS cervical screening leaflet), how to improve communications about cancer screening, the impact of different graphical display features to overcome common judgment biases and the moderating role of individual differences in graph literacy. She has also conducted research on climate risk perception and moral judgment and decision making, including work examining contextual and emotional factors affecting moral judgments and decisions.

Qualifications

  • PhD Experimental Psychology, University of Granada (Spain), 2013
  • MSc Cognitive and Decision Sciences, University College London (United Kingdom), 2008
  • BSc Psychology, Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain), 2006
  • University of Leeds Teaching and Research Award. Higher Education Academy (HEA), 2015

Professional memberships

  • Fellow, Psychonomic Society (US)
  • Fellow, Higher Education Academy (UK)
  • Board Member, Society for the Advancement of Judgment and Decision Making Studies (SEJyD)
  • Member, Society for Judgment and Decision Making
  • Member, European Association for Decision Making

Student education

Teaching experience at University of Leeds (until 2021/22)

Module leadership

  • Current Issues in Decision Making; Leeds University Business School: 3rd year undergraduate course
  • How Managers Make Decisions; Leeds University Business School: 2nd year undergraduate course
  • Introduction to Effective Decision Making; Leeds University Business School: 1st year undergraduate course
  • Effective Decision Making; Leeds University Business School: MSc course

Other lecturing

  • Management Decision Making (Team Member); Leeds University Business School: 3rd year undergraduate course
  • Applied Management Decision Making (Team Member); Leeds University Business School: 3rd year undergraduate course
  • Management Decision Making (Team Member); Leeds University Business School: FT MBA Management Decision Making
  • Business Analytics and Decision Making (Team Member); Leeds University Business School: FT MBA Management Decision Making 
  • Cancer Prevention and Control: A Population Perspective (Guest Lecturer); Leeds School of Medicine: MBChB year 4 

Current PhD students

Research groups and institutes

  • Centre for Decision Research