The Curse of Knowledge: How Information Impacts Your Decisions and Leadership

This episode features and informative conversation with Expert Psychologist, Dr. Susan Birch as she shares her research and discusses her article in Cognition on "curse of knowledge." Susan has a Ph.D. from Yale University in Psychology with expertise in Cognitive Science, Social Cognition, and Human Ontogeny. She is a tenured professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada where she has directed a research lab and published in top-tier journals for over 20 years. Her overarching research goal is to understand how children and adults make inferences about how others think, and importantly, how those inferences impact learning, decision-making, and social-emotional health. The American Psychological Association awarded her with the 2004 Dissertation Award in Developmental Psychology. She also received an Early Career Scholar Award from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, and several research awards from Canada’s Tri-Council Research Agencies. She has an immense love for learning which may explain her 3 additional Masters’ degrees: One in Science, another in Philosophy, and a third in Business specializing in Strategy, Business Communications, and Entrepreneurship. Dr. Birch is especially passionate about understanding biases in the way people think can be minimized to improve people’s psychological health.