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