This course provides an overview of findings in (social) psychological research on social judgment and decision-making. We will review work regarding diverse topics, including emotions and decision making, affective forecasting, power and consumption, morality, and punishment. In the meetings students will present empirical papers on one of the topics, which will be followed by a discussion. On the basis of the seminar meetings and relevant readings, students will develop two research proposals, in which they have to provide a specified research question, hypotheses with rationale based on literature reviews, and a proposed research design to test their hypotheses.

Behavioural economics brings economics together with insights from a wide range of other disciplines, for example psychology (especially social psychology), sociology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology. Using a multidisciplinary blend of ideas, behavioural economic insights will enrich students’ understanding of economic and financial decision making. In the course, we will focus on a few key themes, amongst others: heuristics and biases; social influence; nudging and boosting; and scarcity. Moreover, as governments and other policy-makers are embedding these insights more and more into their policy designs, we will focus also on the policy implications and lessons that are (or should be) adopted by public policy-makers by addressing influential policy studies and behavioural interventions based on behavioural economic insights.