Judgment, Decision Making and Processes

A number of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have strong interests in judgment and decision making. The topics under study include, among others, biases (Baron, Bicchieri), preferenctial choice using insights from psychology and economics (Bhatia), intuitions about fairness (Bicchieri), discounting (Kable), cooperation in both dyads and groups (Bicchieri), and behavioral decision theory and emotions (Mellers). Many researchers have been investigating questions surrounding ethics and morality (Baron, Bicchieri, Goodwin, Schweitzer).

These researchers approach these questions using a variety of methods, including the use of laboratory experiments, web-based surveys, collection of field data, techniques from behavioral economics, and neuroscience.

Penn houses many opportunities to study decision processes. For graduate study, the two main options are the PhD program in the Wharton School and the graduate program in Psychology. Examples of other relevant graduate programs are in the School of Law, the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and the Department of Philosophy.

Several weekly talk series, lab meetings, and periodic discussion groups are relevant to decision processes.  The Decision Processes Brown Bag has run almost continuously for 30 years. While it began as a local research discussion group it now brings in outside speakers as well as local ones, but it still maintains the lively atmosphere of a lab meeting rather than a formal colloquium.

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