Vlad Chituc: "Rad"

Beginning this month and continuing each month after, we will be showcasing a member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. For February, the lab member with this dubious honor is Vlad Chituc.

How long have you worked at CAH?

Nearly four years.

What brought you to CAH?

Good luck, Dan’s generosity, and the opportunity to do really interesting and impactful research.

What is the primary focus of your research?

The social influences of moral decision-making.

Your favorite experience while working at CAH?

Academic: soliciting bribes from a few hundred Duke students.
Nonacademic: our champaign sabering party.

If you weren’t a researcher, what career path would you have followed instead?

I’d have wanted to be a writer.

Which living person do you most admire?

Dan – corny but true !

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Empathy (Paul Bloom is very persuasive)

|| (Note: Bloom wrote a piece about this topic for the Boston Review and it can be found here. It’s worth checking out!) ||

Which BE words or phrases do you most overuse?

Sunk cost

Which talent would you most like to have?

I’d like to be able to go 15 minutes without checking social media.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Writing about my research in The New York Times.

Who are your favorite writers?

Nonfiction: Joan Didion, Larissa MacFarquhar, David Foster Wallace
Fiction: Junot Diaz, Haruki Murakami, Kurt Vonnegut

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Whoever had the idea to domesticate dogs.

What is your motto?

Rad

Do you have any shoutouts?

My dog, Toad, who is perfect and I do not deserve him. My old friends who have moved on from the Ariely lab, who I also miss dearly.

Vlad Chituc ALUMNUS