Michael Mihalicz
Overview
Michael strives to help people be more effective decision makers. His research combines principles from Psychology and Economics to explore how people make decisions, and what causes them to make poor choices. His research findings have led him to devote his personal and professional life to help people understand how drive states subconsciously influence decision-making and predispose people to irrational behaviour. Michael is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow, the Indigenous Advisor at the Ted Rogers School of Management and Assistant Professor in the Entrepreneurship & Strategy Department at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Michael is also committed to making education accessible to underserved and often neglected segments of the population. For over a decade, he has been working to afford student inmates access to courses by breaking down barriers to education and finding creative solutions to institutional concerns. In his current role as Indigenous Advisor, Michael is actively involved in overseeing and supporting reconciliation priorities across campus and tasked with leading the development of protocols and processes that will increase access to postsecondary education for Indigenous students.
Michael’s research broadly explores the intersection of decision making, Indigenous entrepreneurship, and investments in training and education. The goal of his work centers around exposing decision makers to the sources of irrational behaviour and building tools around our cognitive and affective limitations. Michael is also active in research projects exploring barriers and enablers to research-based career paths, investigating unconscious biases inherent in investment decisions, and deepening our understanding of non-financial factors influencing the decisions of Inuit, Métis and First Nations students to pursue postsecondary education.