Lucia Savadori

B.A.

I earned a Bachelor's degree in Psychology with a specialization in Work and Organizational Psychology from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Padua on 10.12.1993. The program lasted for four years, and my thesis title was "Perception of Risk: An Intercultural Research". My supervisor was Professor Rino Rumiati, and I achieved a final grade of 110/110.

Ph.D.

I earned a Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology from the Department of General Psychology at the University of Padova (Cycle X). The Ph.D. program lasted four years (1996-1999). My doctoral thesis was titled "The Group and the Decision: Communication and Social Dynamics in Decision-Making Groups". Professor Giuseppe Mantovani acted as my supervisor.

Academic Career:

2012 - present: Associate Professor of General Psychology at the University of Trento.

2002-2012: Assistant professor of General Psychology at the University of Trento.

2001-2002: Research Assistant on a project collaboration contract at the Laboratory of Cognitive Sciences of Rovereto, University of Trento. The project focused on probability estimation and was supervised by Professor Nicolao Bonini. The duration of the contract was two years.

2002 (September): Visiting scholar for a study and research stay of 15 days at Decision Research in Eugene, Oregon, USA. Collaborated with Professor Paul Slovic, Director of Decision Research and professor at the University of Oregon.

1999-2001: Research fellow on a post-doctoral scholarship at the Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, for a period of two years.

2000 (October-November): Visiting scholar for a one-month study and research visit to Decision Research in Eugene, Oregon, USA. Collaborated with Professor Paul Slovic.

1997 (February-August): Visiting Scholar for a study and research stay of six months at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA. Supervisor: Professor Janet Sniezek (deceased in 2003).

1993-1994: Research scholar for a one-year free internship at the Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, under the guidance of Professor Rino Rumiati.

Teaching Activities:

Professor Savadori has taught or co-taught the following courses: General Psychology, Personality and Motivation, Economic Psychology, Psychology of Thought, Psychology of Organizations, Consumer Psychology, Interview and Questionnaire, Questionnaire Design, Tools for Empirical Economics, and Psychology of Judgment and Decision Lab.

Risk Communication - This research focuses on exploring effective ways to communicate probabilistic information about various risks to patients, citizens, and users. It examines communication strategies for various risks such as prenatal diagnosis, nuclear power, biotechnology, COVID-19, natural hazards, etc.

Risk Perception - This research seeks to understand how individuals perceive and make decisions concerning different hazards. It explores how people mentally represent hazards and how they construct benefit and risk judgments for various hazards using the affect heuristic.

Behavioral Economics - This research analyzes how individuals behave in decisions that involve economic transactions or are relevant to classical economic theories. It explores topics such as scarcity heuristic, intertemporal choices, and decision-making under uncertainty. 

Dual-System Information Processing - This research aims to understand how the two information processing systems interact and influence decision-making and choice. It explores the two systems' functioning- system 1, bottom-up, automatic processing, and system 2, top-down, serial processing.

From May 1, 2019 to April 31, 2022, she served as the principal investigator of the local unit in the "Building European Communities' Resilience and Social Capital (BuildERS)" project, which received funding from the European Commission's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 833496) for a duration of three years.

Between November 1, 2012 and November 1, 2013, she was the principal investigator for the "METEOTRENTINO's snow/avalanche bulletin and the cognitive aspects influencing winter hikers' decisions" project, which was partially funded by the Academy of Mountain and involved members of the Department of Economics and Management (UNITN), the Department of Physics (UNITN), CeRiSM (UNIVR), and FBK (funds were administered by CeRiSM).

From January 15, 2013 to November 15, 2013, she was the principal investigator for the "Effect of Physical Exercise in Cold and Hypoxic Environment on Decision-Making Under Risk Conditions" project, which received funding from the University of Trento through the "UNIVERSIADI 2013" call for research projects.

From June 6, 2010 to June 5, 2012, she was the principal investigator for the "Worker Satisfaction and Risk Perception in the Workplace" project, which received funding from COMUNE di ROVERETO for a duration of two years.

Between May 4, 2010 and May 5, 2012, she was the principal investigator for the local unit in the national project of the strategic program for the finalized research (Area 4 - Women's Health - Maternal and Child Area) "Advanced technologies for the non-invasive prenatal diagnosis of genetic and chromosomal diseases and for the predictivity of complications of pregnancy," which received funding from the MINISTRY OF HEALTH for a duration of two years.

From 2004 to 2008, she served as the Local Responsible for the European Project "SAFE" (Special Non-Invasive Advances in Foetal and Neonatal Evaluation Network, C. no. 503243), which received funding from the European Community in the VI Framework Program for a duration of five years.

Between 2005 and 2008, she served as the Local Responsible for the European Project "SMARTHEALTH" (Smart Integrated Biodiagnostic Systems for Healthcare; C. no. 016817) in the VI Framework Program for a duration of four years.

In 2005, she participated in the PRIN Research Program with the scientific coordinator HEY John Denis and scientific officer LEIJONHUFVUD Axel Stig Bengt. The University of Trento led this program under protocol number 2005137907_002 in Area 13 for a duration of 24 months with the title "Intertemporal models of economic choice: psychological and neurophysiological motivations."

She also participated in the PRIN Research Program in 2003 under scientific coordinator GIROTTO Vittorio and scientific responsible CANAL Luisa, with protocol number 2003114293_003 at the University of Trento in Area 11 for a duration of 24 months. The program aimed to provide meaningful probability information to patients.

In 2003, she collaborated in the Research Project funded by the European Union on "Trust in the Food Supply Chain" under the Fourth Framework Programme, with responsibility given to Prof. Nicolao Bonini.

He was awarded a scholarship from the Laboratory of Cognitive Sciences at the University of Trento in 2001.

From 1999 to 2001, she received a post-doctoral scholarship at the University of Padua, Department of General Psychology.

In 2000 and 2002, she served as a visiting scholar at the Decision Making Laboratory of the University of Trento.

She also worked as a visiting scholar at Decision Research in Eugene, Oregon, directed by Prof. Paul Slovic in 2000 and 2002.

In 1997, she conducted research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Psychology, under the supervision of Prof. Janet Sniezek.

Between 1993 and 1994, she completed a post-graduate reasearch internship at the Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, under the guidance of Prof. Rino Rumiati.

Member of the following Societies:

Italian Association of Experimental Psychology, Judgement and Decision Making Society, European Association of Decision Making, IAREP (International Association on Research in Economic Psychology)

Referee for the following journals:- Risk Analysis- Medical Decision Making- Risk, Science and Society- Journal of Human and Ecological Risk Assessment- Reliability Engineering and System Safety- Food Quality and Preference- Giornale Italiano di Psicologia

Scientific Committee Conferences

2004 Organizing Committee for the Conference "Risk Decision and Human Error", January 15-17, Rovereto. 

2001 Organizing Committee for the Conference on "Decision and Reasoning in the Medical Field", Rovereto, November 29-30.

Lucia Savadori presented her research work at numerous national and international conferences.

From 2022 to present: Delegate for Equity and Diversity for the Department of Economics and Management.

From 2017 to 2020: Appointed by Decree No. 204/2019 of November 13, 2019 of the Prime Minister's Office (National School of Administration), as an expert member of the working group "of the Behavioral Sciences Unit.". Activities related to risk perception and communication within the Memorandum of Understanding between SNA (National School of Administration) and PCM (Presidency of the Council of Ministers) for the implementation of a research plan regarding the application of behavioral sciences as analytical tools in the management of processes and the exercise of administrative action in place since June 19, 2017.  Within this working table, Prof. Savadori carries out, in agreement with the National Civil Defense, experimental studies to foster risk communication from natural disasters to Italian citizens.

From 06.05.2021 to 2022: Responsible for training and communication of the Center for Security and Crime Sciences at the University of Trento and the University of Verona.

From 01.03.2016 to 30.04.2023: Faculty member of the Doctoral School Committee in Economics and Management, University of Trento.

From 2003 to 2016: Faculty member of the Doctoral School in Psychological and Educational Sciences, Department of Cognitive and Educational Sciences, University of Trento.

From 2003 to 2004: Researchers' Representative in the Department Council, Department of Cognitive and Educational Sciences, University of Trento. 

From 2004 to 2009: Member of the Steering Committee of the SAFE project ("Network of Excellence "SAFE": Special Non-Invasive Advances in Foetal and Neonatal Evaluation Network, C. no. 503243)

From 2005 to 2009: Member of the Steering Committee of the Smartheath project ("SMARTHEALTH" Integrated Project, European Project)