Wrap Up
Psychological assumptions… Permeate the social sciences Rational view Behavioral view Biased judgment Malleable preferences Influenced by social context! Psychology as a tool for policy!
Course Objectives Be a better consumer of psychological research Understanding the scientific method in social science Becoming familiar with experimental design Possess an additional set of tools for policy analysis, design and implementation
Behavioral economics Risk perception Attitudes and behavior change Intergroup relations Negotiation
Behavioral economics Risk perception Attitudes and behavior change Intergroup relations Negotiation Ethics, fairness, and responsibility
Behavioral economics Heuristics and biases approach System 1 vs System 2 Bounded awareness Prospect theory – loss aversion Clinical vs. actuarial judgment
Risk perception Emotion and perception of risk Messaging and intuition about risk Also tied to emotion Difficulty in using objective information
Attitudes and behavior change Social norms (injunctive vs. descriptive) Tools of persuasion Central vs. Peripheral route to persuasion
Intergroup relations Individuals form groups readily Functions of forming groups Stigma and its links to prejudice and discrimination Cognitive, behavioral and affective response patterns Automaticity of many of these effects
Negotiation Cognitive barriers to rationality Many previous heuristics and biases in play Anchoring Self-serving biases Status quo bias Framing
What can we do about it? Use decision-analysis tools Acquire expertise Debias judgment Take an outside view Understand bias in others Educate others Perform decision audits