Professor Ward holds a Masters degree and PhD in Psychology from Harvard University. In his highly respected research, Professor Ward uses methods from cognitive and social psychology, as well as insights gleaned from "big data," empirical modeling, behavioral economics, machine learning, and whatever else he can get his hands on to investigate consumer behavior and decision-making. His work is primarily focused on: (1) consumer financial decision-making, (2) how "new" technology affects the outputs of "old" cognitive systems, and (3) flexible morality and mind-perception. In each of these areas, his goal is to understand human behavior "in the wild." He wants to understand why people do the things they do, as they actually do them--and, perhaps, to help them do these things just a little bit better.