Skip to main content

John W. Payne

Joseph J. Ruvane, Jr. Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Fuqua School of Business
Box 90120, Durham, NC 27708-0120
Fuqua Sch of Bus, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


John W. Payne is the Joseph J. Ruvane Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University. He also had appointments as a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and as a Professor of Law at Duke University.

His education includes a B.A. 1969, M.A. 1972, Ph.D. 1973 in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine. He held a position as a postdoctoral fellow in Cognitive Psychology at Carnegie-Mellon University, 1973-74.

Professor Payne’s research deals with how people make decisions, and how decision making might be improved. His particular subfield of interest is decision-making under risk. He has authored or edited four books, including The Adaptive Decision Maker, and more than a 100 additional journal articles and book chapters.

He teaches courses on management and decision making.

Among his honors, Professor Payne has been elected President of the Judgment and Decision Society. He has won the Leo Melamed Prize for scholarship at the University of Chicago, for the most significant research by business school faculty. He was awarded the first JCR award for long-term contribution to consumer research He has been selected as a Fellow, American Psychological Association, 2007, and a Fellow, American Psychological Society, 1995.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Joseph J. Ruvane, Jr. Distinguished Professor Emeritus · 2019 - Present Fuqua School of Business
Professor Emeritus of Business Administration · 2019 - Present Fuqua School of Business
Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences · 2008 - Present Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, University Institutes and Centers

In the News


Published July 30, 2024
What’s the Right Age to Claim Social Security?
Published November 6, 2020
Duke in the News: Assessing a Tight Election, COVID in the Holidays
Published March 28, 2016
How people underestimate spending in retirement

View All News

Recent Publications


Do risk information programs promote mitigating behavior?

Chapter · December 13, 2022 This article reports the results of a panel study investigating the effects of different radon risk information booklets on households' decisions to undertake mitigation. Multinomial logit models are used to describe how differences in the design of the in ... Full text Cite

The pivotal role of fairness: Which consumers like annuities?

Journal Article Financial Planning Review · September 1, 2018 Decumulation of wealth in retirement is a difficult task, requiring tradeoffs between longevity risks and immediate consumption needs. Economists have long argued that life annuities can be a valuable part of decumulation and that most retirees should annu ... Full text Cite

Time preferences and mortgage choice

Journal Article Journal of Marketing Research · June 1, 2017 Mortgage decisions have important consequences for consumers, lenders, and the state of the economy more generally. Mortgage decisions are also prototypical of consumer financial choices that involve a stream of expenditures and consumption occurring acros ... Full text Cite
View All Publications

Recent Grants


From Phenotype to Mechanism: Mapping the Pathways underlying Risky Choice

ResearchAdvisor · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2009 - 2011

Verbal Protocol Analysis of Cost Valuation Responses

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Environmental Protection Agency · 1995 - 1997

Task Stress and Decision Behavior

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 1994 - 1997

View All Grants

Education, Training & Certifications


University of California, Irvine · 1973 Ph.D.