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
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
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
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