CORE 165S - The (Ir)Rationality of Everyday Decisions

For a long time, economics has assumed that individuals are perfectly rational in the sense that they are able to process an unlimited amount of information, make complex decisions, and predict future outcomes. The finding of a significant set of anomalies has prompted economists to seek for explanations outside of the perfect rationality model. The emerging field of behavioral economics is the result of relaxing the assumption of perfect rationality in modeling individual decision making. The course provides students the opportunity to think about their own decision-making process, compare it to what has been found in the literature, and then apply this knowledge to the application of the scientific method to examine a hypothesis of their own. The course provides students the opportunity to think about their own decision-making process, compare it to what has been found in the literature, and then apply this knowledge to the application of the scientific method to examine a hypothesis of their own by running a field experiment on campus. This course requires no prior exposure to economics or statistics.

Credits: 1.00
Corequisite: None
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior
Area of Inquiry: None
Liberal Arts CORE: Scientific Perspectives

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