Decision Science News
| February 21, 2017
What color is your house?
After reading that question, what were you thinking about? The obvious answer is the color of your house. Though this exercise may seem ordinary, it has profound implications. The question momentarily hijacked your thought process and focused it entirely on your house or apartment. You didn’t consciously tell your brain to think about that; it just did so automatically.
Questions are powerful. Not only does hearing a question affect what our brains do in that instant, it can also shape our future behavior.
Topics: Business Economics and Public Policy, Marketing | Read Article
Decision Science News
| February 17, 2017
Exposure to climate models' predictions affects policymakers and climate negotiators less than the informed general public, a paper by Valentina Bosetti and co-authors assesses. But the right presentation format can improve forecasts' effectiveness
Policymakers and climate negotiators tend to use scientific information in a very conservative way, hardly allowing it to dent their prior beliefs, according to an experiment conducted on a sample of 217 policymakers attending the Paris COP21 conference, more than half of them acting negotiators, including eight heads of delegations.
Topics: Business Economics and Public Policy | Read Article
Decision Science News
| November 2, 2016
Social and behavioral scientists caution that you must be careful when you use the “convert communicator” tactic. If the converts bash their own group too much, they lose persuasive powers and credibility. They must hold on to some essence of their original group identity while revealing this specific decision is about not being able to align that identity with this particular candidate.
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Decision Science News
| November 2, 2016
Professor Elke Weber and co-authors Shahzeen Attari and David Krantz studied factors "affecting the adoption of personal energy conservation behaviors and endorsement of energy conservation goals proposed for others." Two internet surveys show asymmetrical responses between goals for self and others. One possible explanation for the asymmetry is
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Decision Science News
| October 26, 2016
Eric Johnson is a member of a group known as the Consortium of Behavioral Scientists, an association of academics bringing insights from the field of behavioral science to the campaign trail.
Topics: Business Economics and Public Policy | Read Article
Decision Science News
| June 29, 2016
Elke Weber of CDS and CRED gave a keynote at the Foundations of Utility and Risk (FUR) Conference at the University of Warwick, UK."
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Decision Science News
| December 7, 2015
Elke Weber of CDS and CRED spoke at the Germany Academy of Sciences Symposium (Leopoldina) entitled "Dealng with risk and uncertainty: a challenge for policy makers."
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Decision Science News
| June 14, 2015
Cass Sunstein reviews Richard Thaler's new book, The Mischievous Science. Thaler's book is an account of the struggle to bring the discipline of economics down to earth. He aims to change the way people think about the field, themselves and the world. Sunstein's review discusses much of the history of behavioral economics. He mentions that while scientists such as Elke Weber have made much progress on the subject of answering questions about heterogeneity in human behavior, there is still much to learn.
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Decision Science News
| June 8, 2015
Elke Weber recently spoke about climate change at the Penn Program on Regulation's Risk Regulation Series. Weber described climate change as the "perfect storm" action problem where intial costs are painful but long-term consequences are beneficial. She empahsizes that there is no one solution: we need action on all fronts. She promotes the collboration of diverse fields to combat and to further awareness of climate change.
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Decision Science News
| May 5, 2015
The Guardian has a panel of experts share what they think are the best ways to promote positive action for climate change. Suggestions include connecting the dots, highlighting the economic benefits, and forgetting about the pictures of polar bears. CDS' own Elke Weber recommends that we don't forget that small efforts add up. We need to communicate solutions that are credible and effective that will cumulatively scale up in the long run.
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