Psychology of Bad Decisions： From Everyday Mistakes to Criminal Behavior

Format: Online

Student Group: High School and Undergraduate Stduents

Location: GEC Academy, Beijing, China

Course Objective

The primary learning goal of this program is to provide a range of explanations for why some people sometimes make extremely poor decisions, especially the kinds of decisions that hurt themselves and others. The range of answers considered will include genetic, biological, environmental, social, and psychological factors which contribute to human decision making in general. Put a little differently then, this is a class about the basic mechanisms of human decision making, how, when, and why they produce bad, even terrible, and shocking outcomes.

To meet these learning goals, the program will provide an introductory foundation to the science of decision-making. We will answer questions including: why do we make choices that disappoint us, so often and so easily? Why do we procrastinate? Why do we spend too much on things that don’t make us happy? Why and when do we tend to lose money? When do doctors make mistakes, and why? How do we judge things as good or bad, right or wrong, lucky or earned? And why do some people make especially bad choices, the kinds that hurt others? Why do some people seem to have a different set of moral standards? What makes people prone to coercion, group think, and even cults?

In each case, what we will discover is that human behavior is systematic, even if imperfect, irrational, inconsistent, and disappointing. In other words: there are reasons for why and when we make bad decisions and why and when people make good ones. A major focus will be on the experimental approaches that have allowed psychologists, neuroscientists, and economists to elaborate the specific mechanisms of human decisions.