Neuroeconomics: A Match Made in Heaven or Hell?
Prof. Michelle Baddeley, Prof. Wolfram Schultz, Dr. Robb Rutledge
March 10th, 5:15 pm, Little Hall, Sidgwick Site - Join us on Facebook
Behavioural economists have been increasingly able to show that cognition and perception in real people is inconsistent with the paradigm of optimal choice and perfectly rational decision making. Could neuroeconomics give us the solution? Could it provide us with a scientific basis for the cognitive processes underlying economic decision-making?
Neuroeconomics uses methods and approaches from cognitive neuroscience to shed light on how agents make decisions. The field promises to break open the “black box” of human decision making and processing in economics, allowing us to create richer models of rational, or not so rational, choice. But, the field is new. The tools and approaches in neuroeconomics are still yet to be fully developed. How far can neuroscientific methods contribute to economic research, and in which particular fields? Do we need to understand human cognition on such a level to sufficiently explain economic phenomena?
Neuroeconomics uses methods and approaches from cognitive neuroscience to shed light on how agents make decisions. The field promises to break open the “black box” of human decision making and processing in economics, allowing us to create richer models of rational, or not so rational, choice. But, the field is new. The tools and approaches in neuroeconomics are still yet to be fully developed. How far can neuroscientific methods contribute to economic research, and in which particular fields? Do we need to understand human cognition on such a level to sufficiently explain economic phenomena?
Michelle Baddeley is Professor in Economics and Finance of the Built Environment at the Bartlett School, UCL. Before that, she was Director of Studies in Economics at Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge. She was also a Faculty Research Fellow at the Faculty of Economics.
She explores links between economics, psychology and sociology and is currently applying these themes to a range of topics related to energy and the environment, online privacy and security, and also to the management of complex infrastructure projects. In collaboration with neuroscientists, she has used experimental and neuroscientific techniques to analyse links between personality/emotions and herding/social influence. Other experimental analyses have shown social influences affecting housing markets and jury deliberations.
Wolfram Schultz is the Wellcome Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Physiology Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge. Before that, he was a Professor of Neurophysiology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and has worked in Germany, the USA, and Sweden.
He has made contributions to our understanding of the reward functions of dopamine neurons and of neurons in other parts of the brain's reward system. He has also done important work on the relationship between reward and risk information in the brain, especially in relation to learning theory and neuroeconomics.
She explores links between economics, psychology and sociology and is currently applying these themes to a range of topics related to energy and the environment, online privacy and security, and also to the management of complex infrastructure projects. In collaboration with neuroscientists, she has used experimental and neuroscientific techniques to analyse links between personality/emotions and herding/social influence. Other experimental analyses have shown social influences affecting housing markets and jury deliberations.
Wolfram Schultz is the Wellcome Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Physiology Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge. Before that, he was a Professor of Neurophysiology at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and has worked in Germany, the USA, and Sweden.
He has made contributions to our understanding of the reward functions of dopamine neurons and of neurons in other parts of the brain's reward system. He has also done important work on the relationship between reward and risk information in the brain, especially in relation to learning theory and neuroeconomics.