Cognitive
Boundedly Rational Patient Decisionmaking
May 8, 2017
Ada C. Stefanescu Schmidt (Massachusetts General Hospital; Harvard Medical School), Ami Bhatt (MGH; Harvard Medical School), & Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard Law School; Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)) have posted Boundedly Rational Patients? Health and Patient Mistakes in a Behavioral Framework on SSRN. Here is the abstract: During medical visits, the stakes are high for many patients, who are put in a position to make, or to begin to make, important health-related decisions....
May 8, 2017
Ada C. Stefanescu Schmidt (Massachusetts General Hospital; Harvard Medical School), Ami Bhatt (MGH; Harvard Medical School), & Cass R. Sunstein (Harvard Law School; Harvard University - Harvard Kennedy School (HKS)) have posted Boundedly Rational Patients? Health and Patient Mistakes in a Behavioral Framework on SSRN. Here is the abstract: During medical visits, the stakes are high for many patients, who are put in a position to make, or to begin to make, important health-related decisions....
New: Barriers to Resolution in Ideologically Based Negotiations: The Role of Values and Institutions
May 8, 2017
While traditional behavioral decision theory as applied to negotiation sheds light on some of the barriers encountered in negotiations, it does not fully account for many of the difficulties and failures to reach settlement in ideologically-based disputes. In this paper, we identify a number of factors that differentiate ideologically-based negotiations from other types of negotiation, and advance a perspective that takes into account the value-laden and institutional contexts in which they occur....
May 8, 2017
While traditional behavioral decision theory as applied to negotiation sheds light on some of the barriers encountered in negotiations, it does not fully account for many of the difficulties and failures to reach settlement in ideologically-based disputes. In this paper, we identify a number of factors that differentiate ideologically-based negotiations from other types of negotiation, and advance a perspective that takes into account the value-laden and institutional contexts in which they occur....
Brains May Make Automatic Memory Back-Up
May 5, 2017
The way brains form memories could be completely different than previously believed according to new research. It suggests we make two simultaneous memories: one for short-term and one for the long-term. Until now the prevailing belief was that the hippocampus creates a memory that is then transferred to the cortex. That was partly derived from patients with conditions, similar to those depicted in the movie Memento, in which hippocampus damage means they are unable to form new memories but retain...
May 5, 2017
The way brains form memories could be completely different than previously believed according to new research. It suggests we make two simultaneous memories: one for short-term and one for the long-term. Until now the prevailing belief was that the hippocampus creates a memory that is then transferred to the cortex. That was partly derived from patients with conditions, similar to those depicted in the movie Memento, in which hippocampus damage means they are unable to form new memories but retain...
Making the Most of the First-Offer Advantage: Pre-Offer Conversation and Negotiation Outcomes
May 2, 2017
Why do some negotiators benefit from making the first offer during negotiations while others do not? This study explores the contents of conversations that take place before negotiators make their first offers in order to learn more about the differences between ultimately successful first offers that benefit from anchoring effects and ultimately unsuccessful ones in which negotiators apparently derive no benefit from making the first offer. In-depth qualitative analyses of the conversations that...
May 2, 2017
Why do some negotiators benefit from making the first offer during negotiations while others do not? This study explores the contents of conversations that take place before negotiators make their first offers in order to learn more about the differences between ultimately successful first offers that benefit from anchoring effects and ultimately unsuccessful ones in which negotiators apparently derive no benefit from making the first offer. In-depth qualitative analyses of the conversations that...
Superhumans Live Among Us
April 30, 2017
The usual explanation for why humans are so much more capable is their flexibility, which probably results mainly from their breadth. A computer doing a task usually has available to it a far smaller range of methods, knowledge, and data. When what it has are good enough, a computer can be far more accurate and cheaper than a human. But when when a computer lacks important relevant method, knowledge, and data, then you just can’t do without that human flexibility and breadth. You might hire a human...
April 30, 2017
The usual explanation for why humans are so much more capable is their flexibility, which probably results mainly from their breadth. A computer doing a task usually has available to it a far smaller range of methods, knowledge, and data. When what it has are good enough, a computer can be far more accurate and cheaper than a human. But when when a computer lacks important relevant method, knowledge, and data, then you just can’t do without that human flexibility and breadth. You might hire a human...
10 Ways That Running Changes Your Mind and Brain
April 29, 2017
“One 60-minute run can add 7 hours to your life” claimed The Times last week. The story was based on a new review in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases that concluded that runners live, on average, three years longer than non-runners and that running will do more for your longevity than any other form of exercise. But there’s more to running than its health-enhancing effects. Research published in recent years has shown that donning your trainers and pounding the hills or pavements changes...
April 29, 2017
“One 60-minute run can add 7 hours to your life” claimed The Times last week. The story was based on a new review in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases that concluded that runners live, on average, three years longer than non-runners and that running will do more for your longevity than any other form of exercise. But there’s more to running than its health-enhancing effects. Research published in recent years has shown that donning your trainers and pounding the hills or pavements changes...
An Intelligence in Our Image: The Risks of Bias and Errors in Artificial Intelligence
April 27, 2017
Machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence systems influence many aspects of people's lives: news articles, movies to watch, people to spend time with, access to credit, and even the investment of capital. Algorithms have been empowered to make such decisions and take actions for the sake of efficiency and speed. Despite these gains, there are concerns about the rapid automation of jobs (even such jobs as journalism and radiology). A better understanding of attitudes toward and interactions...
April 27, 2017
Machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence systems influence many aspects of people's lives: news articles, movies to watch, people to spend time with, access to credit, and even the investment of capital. Algorithms have been empowered to make such decisions and take actions for the sake of efficiency and speed. Despite these gains, there are concerns about the rapid automation of jobs (even such jobs as journalism and radiology). A better understanding of attitudes toward and interactions...
Implicit Bias in Judicial Decision Making How It Affects Judgment and What Judges Can Do About It
April 25, 2017
This Chapter reviews research indicating that judges, like most adults, rely too heavily on intuition while making important decisions. This tendency leaves them vulnerable to using overly simplistic cognitive strategies to decide cases, which creates predictable, systematic errors in judgment.
April 25, 2017
This Chapter reviews research indicating that judges, like most adults, rely too heavily on intuition while making important decisions. This tendency leaves them vulnerable to using overly simplistic cognitive strategies to decide cases, which creates predictable, systematic errors in judgment.
6 Ways to Look More Confident During a Presentation
April 22, 2017
How can you send out the same signals—and hopefully generate the same success? At the Center for Body Language, we’ve studied successful leaders across a range of fields and identified several positions which are indicators of effective, persuasive body language. * * The next time you give a presentation, try to have it recorded, then review the video with the sound off, watching only your body language. How did you stand and gesture? Did you use any of these positions? If not, think...
April 22, 2017
How can you send out the same signals—and hopefully generate the same success? At the Center for Body Language, we’ve studied successful leaders across a range of fields and identified several positions which are indicators of effective, persuasive body language. * * The next time you give a presentation, try to have it recorded, then review the video with the sound off, watching only your body language. How did you stand and gesture? Did you use any of these positions? If not, think...
‘Better Off, as Judged by Themselves’: A Comment on Evaluating Nudges
April 20, 2017
Many nudges are designed to make people better off, as judged by themselves. This criterion, meant to ensure that nudges will increase people’s welfare, contains some ambiguity. It is useful to distinguish among three categories of cases: (1) those in which choosers have clear antecedent preferences, and nudges help them to satisfy those preferences (often by increasing “navigability”); (2) those in which choosers face a self-control problem, and nudges help them to overcome that problem; and (3) those...
April 20, 2017
Many nudges are designed to make people better off, as judged by themselves. This criterion, meant to ensure that nudges will increase people’s welfare, contains some ambiguity. It is useful to distinguish among three categories of cases: (1) those in which choosers have clear antecedent preferences, and nudges help them to satisfy those preferences (often by increasing “navigability”); (2) those in which choosers face a self-control problem, and nudges help them to overcome that problem; and (3) those...
