DMfO

Conference on Decision Making for Others

The Nijmegen School of Management organized a multi-disciplinary conference on Decision Making for Others on July 2nd and 3rd 2018. 40 researchers from all over the world (US, UK, central Europe, Scandinavia, East Asia) from Economics, Psychology, Social Science and Neuroscience followed the invitation from Associate Professor Sascha Füllbrunn (NSM, Department of Economics) and Senior Lecturer Wolfgang Luhan (University of Portsmouth). Most participants were highly distinguished researchers, leading their respective fields; a number of small travel grants also allowed some early-career researchers working on their first research projects to participate.

This conference aimed to dissect the fragmented results in the literature in order to bring the discussion to a common denominator. Further on, it aimed to foster the collaboration of researchers from different disciplines. The conference consisted of two parts. In the first part, individual presentations and on-screen poster presentations of cutting edge projects were held in our new collaboration rooms to bring all participants on the same page. In the second part, the participants organized their thoughts on the topic in a computer-aided brainstorm session guided by Professor Etiënne Rouwette from the NSM’s methods group–the first time he applied this method to a research question in such an environment. During the farewell, the participants testified a very focussed and fruitful research environment to discuss a particular research strand rather than presenting at broadly organized conferences. Eventually, sharing experiences across disciplines allowed all participants to change perspective, in line with the strategic plan of Radboud University.

The organizers thank the sponsors (the IMR, the International Office, the hotspot Integrated Decision Making and the DNB), and also all helpers (student assistants, PhD candidates, and the secretary’s office) for making this event possible.

Related to the conference, Sascha Füllbrunn and Wolfgang Luhan, together with Neuroscientist Alan Sanfey (Donders), guest edit a special issue on “Decision Making for Others” at the Journal of Economic Psychology which will be published in 2019. This conference was a good start to advertise the special issue and many participants signal interest to either submit a paper or to serve a reviewers. In that issue, the conference again will receive some additional attention.

For questions or comments please contact Sascha Füllbrunn (s.fullbrunn@fm.ru.nl)

Further links: Conference webpage , Special Issue , Organizers: Sascha Füllbrunn , Wolfgang Luhan