Srishti Sharma

Srishti Sharma is an HCI PhD Summer Fieldwork Fellow, 2026, and a third-year PhD Candidate in Economics at Boston University. Her research intersects development economics, health economics, and behavioral and experimental economics, with a focus on the behavioral and psychological mechanisms behind poor health outcomes.

For her HCI Summer Fieldwork Fellowship, Srishti will conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment embedded in a household health survey with 800 participants in New Delhi. The study examines how individuals — both undiagnosed and diagnosed with diabetes — update their beliefs in response to blood glucose test results, and whether motivated reasoning leads them to discount worrying diagnostic signals while embracing reassuring ones. Participants are also randomly assigned to predict their health status alone or in the presence of a family member, isolating whether social pressure compounds self-deception. Those with abnormal readings will be followed up to measure treatment acceptance and disease management outcomes. The project aims to generate evidence for policies that go beyond access to address the behavioral roots of non-adherence.