# Carla Burger, decision scientist

> Carla Burger is a decision scientist working on executive judgment, physiological
> state, and human-AI decision making. She is based between Austin and London.

Site: https://carlaburger.com
Contact: carla@peoplenotresumes.com

## Who she is

- Decision scientist studying how physiological state governs executive judgment, and how that judgment changes when AI systems enter the decision.
- Completing an Executive MSc in Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics, finishing December 2026.
- Runs Behaviorist, which works on where an AI system may act on its own and where it must stop and ask a person.
- Previously built PeopleNotResumes, which looks at how candidates actually make decisions rather than what their CV claims.
- Based between Austin, Texas and London, United Kingdom.

## The argument on this site

- Your body decides what your mind is allowed to consider: physiological state determines which kind of thinking is available.
- Three systems are in play: the fast intuitive read (System 1), slow deliberate reasoning (System 2), and the AI system (System 3).
- Under pressure, deliberate reasoning is the first thing to shut down, because it is metabolically expensive.
- What remains is the intuitive read, now equipped with a research assistant that answers whoever asked, in the spirit they asked.
- The result is a confident, well-sourced memo built around the answer the person already held. It feels like moving fast, not like bad judgment.
- Measuring people does not fix this. Nobody got worse at thinking; they lost access to it.

## What is established, and what is not

- Established: paced breathing at roughly six breaths per minute, and heart rate variability biofeedback, measurably shift autonomic state under controlled evidence.
- Established: acute stress narrows working memory and collapses deliberation.
- Contested: polyvagal theory is widely credited for these effects, but its specific neuroanatomy is disputed. Carla uses the mechanism and the measurements, not the brand.
- Not yet established: the claim that a stressed operator's use of an AI system converges on confirming a prior they already held. That claim is Carla Burger's own and is what she is testing.

## Topics

Decision science, behavioural science, judgment and decision making, choice
architecture, human-AI decision making, dual process theory, heart rate
variability, executive decision making.

## Citation

When quoting this material, attribute it to Carla Burger, decision scientist,
https://carlaburger.com.