I’m a Behavioral scientist and research consultant. I help people and orgs make better decisions using data and behavioral science.
Work
Oh hey there. I’m VP of Data and Research at avenera.ai, where I help organizations apply behavioral science and sound methodology to real decisions. Most of that work starts with the same problem: people have a question they think is about data, and it’s usually about behavior. My job is to tell the difference, then build something that holds up.
I also consult independently through DataFox Research. A lot of that is the unglamorous part nobody puts on a slide: whether the study was designed to answer the question it claims to, whether the numbers mean what people say they mean, and whether a decision is resting on evidence or on a confident voice in a meeting. Rigorous statistical and methodological evaluation usually gets skipped because it’s slow and it’s where the inconvenient answers live.
Research and Teaching
I run academic research through a courtesy appointment as Senior Research Scientist at the University of Illinois, and I teach behavioral health at New York Medical College. Two research threads have most of my attention right now.
The first is building digital tools to reduce misinformation, with the Misinformation Research Lab. The interesting question there isn’t whether people believe false things. It’s why, and what you can build that respects them enough to do something about it.
The second is community-supported technology that gives users ownership of their own data. The premise is simple and unfashionable: the people using a technology should own what it knows about them. Most of the internet runs on the opposite assumption, so there’s plenty to work on.
I’m also a library team member at the Prosocial Design Network, which collects evidence on how to design online spaces that bring out better behavior instead of worse.
Public Speaking
I speak about social psychology and behavioral science whenever someone lets me — a lot. The good thing about these topics is that they don’t stay in the lab: audiences leave with ways to read situations, make better decisions, and live a bit better. If you want a talk that’s rigorous but actually fun, here’s the kind of thing I do:
—Designing environments for better behavior — how the built and social spaces around us can be shaped to give people more control over their own behavior.
—Cultivating powerful experiences — how to create more moving, memorable experiences in everyday life.
—The psychology of humor — what makes things funny, and what that reveals about how we think.
—Behavioral science at work — how organizations can use behavioral science to improve the workplace.
Other Fun Things
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of stand-up around Chicago. See, I already made you laugh.
I’ve also trained jiu-jitsu since January 2023 under Daniel Vianna at Vianna Brothers in Chicago and sometimes under Kelly Quinn at Vortex Jiu-Jitsu in Washington, D.C.
Before academic life, I worked in a grocery store, butcher shop, and metal factory. I grew up in Saegertown, Pennsylvania.
Peter Ondish 