GI Faculty Member Dr. Igor Grossmann Awarded $1.5 Million Grant for His Interdisciplinary Project

Games Institute (GI) faculty member Dr. Igor Grossmann (Psychology), in collaboration with his team at Wisdom and Culture Lab, successfully secured a $1.5 million grant for their “Wisdom across cultures beyond traditional decision-making paradigms” project.

This funding was provided by the Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF), whose goal is to fund “innovative projects that push the boundaries of scientific knowledge and help people flourish.”

This interdisciplinary project aims to investigate how various factors (including cultural, ecological, and situational influences) shape individuals’ approaches to everyday problem-solving and decision-making; this can further be applied across diverse fields such as education and policy-making. The project involves efforts from fields such as psychology, computer science, and psychometrics. The researchers also plan to use anthropological and psychological surveys, to gather data on how people from different cultures approach complex situations. Natural language processing techniques will be used to help identify common strategies, and via computer modelling, scholars will test these strategies in different contexts. 

As Dr. Grossmann shares, “studying wisdom is crucial as it offers insights into how people navigate complex and uncertain situations, especially when these are shaped by cultural, moral, and interpersonal dynamics.”  

The GI congratulates Dr. Igor Grossmann on receiving the grant and wishes continued success in advancing the groundbreaking work!