Podcast #5 – Alan Sanfey – How we make decisions and the science of it

Our guest today is Prof. Alan Sanfey. Alan is a Principal Investigator at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior.

Previously he has held positions as Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona, and as a postdoctoral research fellow at Princeton University. 

He currently heads the Decision Neuroscience group at the Donders Institute, and his research uses a novel approach to the study of both individual and interactive decision-making by combining the methods of behavioral experiments, functional neuroimaging, and formal economic models. 

A further goal of his group is to use the knowledge gleaned from these studies to inform public policy debates.

In this conversation we talk about the science of decision making and how it could be used in industry. We discuss various aspects of decision making theory and how industry has tried to incorporate them and where things sometimes go wrong.

Connect with the guest

Show Notes

Articles / Books

  • Society for Neuroeconomics
  • Trust Game
    • Berg, J., Dickhaut, J., & McCabe, K. (1995). Trust, reciprocity, and social history. Games and economic behavior10(1), 122-142.
  • Ultimatum Game
    • Güth, W., Schmittberger, R., & Schwarze, B. (1982). An experimental analysis of ultimatum bargaining. Journal of economic behavior & organization3(4), 367-388.
  • Paul Glimcher, Ernst Fehr – Neuroeconomics
  • Daniel Kahneman – Thinking fast and slow
  • Robert Cialdini – Influence
  • Rober Cialdini – Pre-suasion
  • Dan Ariely – Predictably irrational
  • Richard Thaler, Cass Sunstein – Nudge

Videos / Movies / Documentaries

Dan Ariely – TED Talk – Are we in control of our decisions? 

Dan Ariely – TED Talk – Are we in control of our decisions? 

Commenting Rules: Being critical is fine, if you are being rude, we’ll delete your stuff. Please do not put your URL in the comment text and please use your PERSONAL name or initials and not your business name, as the latter comes off like spam. Have fun and thanks for your input.

Leave a Reply

✉️ Subscribe to the Newsletter

Join a growing community. Every Friday I share the most recent insights from what I have been up to, directly to your inbox.