Linda Babcock Reappointed Head of Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Social and Decision Sciences

Carnegie Mellon University has reappointed Linda Babcock head of the Department of Social and Decision Sciences.

“Linda is not just a good department head, she is a great department head,” said Richard Scheines, Bess Family Dean of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “She has attracted top talent to the department, she has created an excellent environment for everyone within the department, and she has been a great university citizen. She has been invaluable in helping us try to move the needle on diversity, equity and inclusion, and has the respect of everyone I know in the faculty, staff and student body. I am truly grateful that she has agreed to serve a second term as the department head of Social and Decision Sciences.”

Babcock, the James M. Walton Professor of Economics, has positioned the department to ensure undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines have the skills to tackle real-world problems. She initiated the world’s first undergraduate major in Behavioral Economics, Policy and Organizations and two new doctoral programs — Behavioral Economic and Behavioral Marketing and Decision Research, both joint with the Tepper School of Business. The department also developed the Executive Program in Behavioral Economics, an education program designed to help executives strengthen their brand, engage consumers, improve employee well-being and institutionalize an evidence-based approach to organizational decision-making and change management.

An expert on negotiations and dispute resolution, Babcock focuses on gender differences in negotiation and how people react when women negotiate. She is the co-author of “Women Don't Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide,” and “Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want.”

Babcock joined CMU in 1988 and holds an appointment in the H. John Heinz III College, where she served as acting dean from 2000 to 2001. She is the founder and faculty director of the Program for Research and Outreach on Gender Equity in Society (PROGRESS), one of the founders of the Center for Behavioral Decision Research and the founder of the Leadership and Negotiation Academy for Women.

Babcock is a member of the Russell Sage Foundation Behavioral Economics Roundtable and has served on the economics review panel for the National Science Foundation. She has also been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, the Harvard Business School and the California Institute of Technology.