Research

My published research focused on the effect of the indoor environment (specifically heat) on heuristics and cognitive performance, as well as investigated the behavioral response to the COVID-19 recommendations to avoid busy places. 

Turning Up the Heat

...makes men complain about the heat, and predict their performance will suffer, even though they are not actually performing worse. 

Women not only do not complain in 28 degrees, but they also become as risk-seeking as men.


Stroom, M., Kok, N., Strobel, M., & Eichholtz, P. (2021). Turning Up the Heat: The Impact of Indoor Temperature on Cognitive Processes and the Validity of Self-Report. Judgment and Decision Making, 16(3), 766-795.

Avoiding Busy Places During COVID-19

... is driven by game theory and social norms: highly educated people go out when they think they are the only ones. Ambiguity keeps people away, but when it seems that most people go out, everybody again follows. 






Stroom, M., Eichholtz, P., & Kok, N. (2021). Avoiding Crowded Places During COVID-19: Common Sense or a Complex Strategic Decision?. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 700640. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.700640


Eichholtz, P., Kok, N., & Stroom, M. (2020). Vermijden drukke plekken is op papier gemakkelijker dan in de praktijk. Economisch Statistische Berichten, 105(4792), 578-581. 

Current working papers examine the degree in which (environmental) factors appear to influence working from home productivity versus factors that really influence productivity. Moreover, I redeveloped and validated a productivity questionnaire to do so. Second, recollection accuracy of productivity during COVID-19 is examined. Furthermore, I lead an exploratory investigation to assess the human ability to assess risk in networks.

Bounded Rationality in Social Network Analysis 

... is suggested by our observation that people use relatively easily assessable physical characteristics, such as the shortest distance to an infected node or the ratio of infected nodes relative to all nodes, to estimate the spread via a social network. We suggest that the often-complex mental calculation of objective risk dispersion in networks is substituted by a heuristics-driven approach. 

Work with Roselinde Kessels, Ingrid Rohde, and Martin Strobel. Ready for submission

Presented at SJDM2022 - San Diego

Bounded Rationality in Social Network Analysis: How do network characteristics influence the human assessment of infection risk as network spread? (2023, Working Paper)

SJDM_Pres.pdf

Work Productivity and Stress Questionnaire (WPSQ)

... is needed to investigate productivity on multiple domains. I redevelop and validate a previous questionnaire (Health Work Questionnaire) into the Work Productivity and Stress Questionnaire. It shows better fitting factors, internal consistency, and reliability. As  bonus, I examine the performance of simple single-item alternatives 

Single author work.  Preparation for submission: final editing

Work Productivity and Stress Questionnaire (WPSQ): Revision and Validation of the Health Work Questionnaire (HWQ). (2023, Working Paper)

Does working from home work? 

That depends on the home. Working from home productivity depends on satisfaction with the home office climate (e.g. noise and temperature) and the hardware (e.g. chair and screen). Seemingly unbeknownst to the workers, however, opening a window improves satisfaction in both domains. 


Work with Piet Eichholtz and Nils Kok. Submitted for publication

Presented at 

UM-MIT workshop sessions - September 2022

ASSA2023 - Doctoral Poster Session AREAUE - Januari 2023

Does working from home work? That depends on the home! (2023, Working Paper)


Working_from_home_Sep2022.pdf

Looking back at the present 

... implies we are underestimating how much our current state is painting our memory. I show that, looking at multiple work factors over time during the turbulent COVID-19 period, the current scores predict the recollection score better than the actual score in the past. 


Single author work.  Preparation for submission.

Looking back at the present? Recollection Bias in Self-Reports - A working-from-home case study