Decisions and the Brain

Catalog description

Where do errors come from? How can we make better decisions? Should intuition be trusted? Can we nudge others to make better decisions, and should we? This course examines neural bases for human decisions and cognitive biases. Drawing from economics, psychology, and neuroscience, it takes an interdisciplinary perspective on topics including decision-making under risk (how humans deal with probabilities), intertemporal decisions (saving for the future), and social decisions (interpersonal allocations and fairness). Students will explore different notions of rational behavior, how data on human behavior and brain activity is collected, and how we can use these data to improve decisions. Hands-on experience will include lab visits (both behavioral and brain imaging) and data collection through online platforms as students gain familiarity with different models of decision-making (including expected utility theory vs. prospect theory for decisions under risk, exponential vs. hyperbolic discounting for intertemporal decisions, and selfish vs. social preferences for interpersonal decisions) and examine how these models reflect available neural evidence.