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Home > Degree Programs > Teaching & Courses > Course Listing > Judgment and Decision Making
API-304: Judgment and Decision Making
Faculty: Iris Bohnet, Jennifer Lerner
Schedule
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Description
Decision science focuses on understanding and improving the judgment and decision making of individuals, groups, and organizations. This course — an introduction to decision science — draws primarily on economics and psychology, examining the interplay between how people “should” make decisions and how people actually do. Through a combination of interactive exercises and analysis of relevant literature, students will learn to analyze the ways decisions are made and to improve their own judgments and decisions. Students will also learn ways to ground public policies and leadership plans in realistic assumptions about human nature. Some of the questions we will address include: Why are decision makers often overconfident? Why are they less willing to trust than to take an equivalently risky bet? Is it true that emotions corrupt, while cognitions clarify our thinking? In keeping with the interdisciplinary nature of the field, this course will be co-taught by professors from distinct disciplines: economics and psychology.