Research Interests

My specialization is consumer behavior. I am interested in understanding consumer psychology in a financial context. More specifically, I study the impact of hidden psychological factors on investors’ judgment and decision-making processes. My research aims to understand how visually presented financial information contributes to certain cognitive biases. I use surveys or/and experiments as primary data collection methods. A joint research, “How Pictogram Arrangements Impact Consumer Optimism and Judgments,” that I am part of, is submitted to the Journal of Marketing Communications. In this work, we have demonstrated a differential response to the objectively equivalent information of different arrangements of pictograms. One of the essays in my dissertation investigates the impact of economically irrelevant factors in stock price charts on investors’ stock price volatility perception. In 2022, I attended the Society for Consumer Psychology, and Society for Judgment and Decision-Making conferences to present my work.

Prior Education

B.S. in Management at Bilkent University, Turkey, January 2018

Personal Information

I love running and cycling in the fantastic nature of Troy. I also love walking and doing yoga with my friends. I am very much interested in cooking healthy food, especially I search for authentic recipes from the international cuisine. If I feel like cooking late at night, you might see me grabbing some cooking ingredients in Walmart. Spending time in Troy Farmer’s Market on Saturdays, especially before the weather gets too cold, is always fun.

Why RPI?

I have been planning to pursue an academic career since my first year in college. In my final year at the college, I decided to pursue a graduate degree on consumer behavior, especially in the US. Before I joined RPI, I believed I could benefit from Lally School of Management's excellence in teaching and the expertise of the faculty. I was really impressed with the research quality of one of the papers I had read before I came to RPI, and I wanted to work with the author of “that” particular paper. Now, he is my advisor.