Behavioural Economics

Our summer series on Behavioural Economics will start on Tuesday 30 June 2020 and run until 25 August. Standard economics assumes economic actors are perfectly rational, reason well about probabilities, and always seek to maximize their own welfare in the marketplace. Making this assumption makes the mathematics easier. Behavioural economics uses findings in social psychology to contest this assumption. Real people are not perfect in their calculations. They use mostly accurate heuristics (short-cuts) to figure out what to do, and they exhibit systematic biases in their thinking that can be discovered by experiments. We will watch, discuss, and critique some fascinating and useful examples of this work and see how it challenges established economic thinking. See the syllabus at Economics.

Facilitator: Andrew Kernohan

30 June 2020

David Asch, "Why it's so hard to make healthy decisions," Nov 2019

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_asch_why_it_s_so_hard_to_make_healthy_decisions

7 July 2020

Dan Ariely, "How to change your behavior for the better," Nov 2019

https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_how_to_change_your_behavior_for_the_better

14 July 2020

Molly Crockett, "Beware neuro-bunk," Dec 2012

https://www.ted.com/talks/molly_crockett_beware_neuro_bunk

21 July 2020

Tricia Wang, "The human insights missing from big data," Jul 2017

https://www.ted.com/talks/tricia_wang_the_human_insights_missing_from_big_data

28 July 2020

David Autor, "Will automation take away all our jobs?" Dec 2016

https://www.ted.com/talks/david_autor_will_automation_take_away_all_our_jobs

4 August 2020

Rachel Botsman, "We've stopped trusting institutions and started trusting strangers," Oct 2016

https://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_we_ve_stopped_trusting_institutions_and_started_trusting_strangers

11 August 2020

Paul Bloom, "Can prejudice ever be a good thing?" Jul 2014

https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_bloom_can_prejudice_ever_be_a_good_thing

18 August 2020

Tali Sharot, "The optimism bias," May 2012

https://www.ted.com/talks/tali_sharot_the_optimism_bias

25 August 2020

Daniel Goldstein, "The battle between your present and future self," Dec 2011

https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goldstein_the_battle_between_your_present_and_future_self