Episode 005: Sharing is Caring: Moods, Cooperation, and Fairness with Dr. Barbara Mellers
Mar 10, 2021
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Dr. Barbara Mellers discusses mood's impact on cooperation, conflicts between desires and fairness, and the difference between how we should and actually make decisions. Topics include fairness perceptions, autonomy, and income inequality in decision-making, mood's influence on cooperative behaviors, response mode effects on preferences, improving decision-making through normative models, biases like overconfidence, and the value of nurturing diverse interests.
Judgment involves evaluating single entities, while decision-making requires choosing between options.
Positive moods can influence decision-making, leading to more cooperative behaviors in game settings.
Deep dives
Behavioral Decision Making and Fairness Perception
Dr. Barbara Millers, an expert in behavioral decision making, discusses the connection between judgment and decision making. She explains that judgment involves evaluating single entities, while decision making requires choosing between at least two options. Dr. Millers' research delves into fairness perception, particularly in situations involving resource distribution and economic games. She highlights a study on perceptions of fairness linked to income inequality and autonomy, revealing that those feeling more autonomous tend to perceive less inequality.
Insights into Human Cooperation and Fairness
Referencing economic games like the ultimatum and dictator games, Dr. Barbara Millers explores human cooperation and fairness behavior. Participants in these games often display behaviors contradicting standard economic predictions. She discusses the motivations behind such actions, including fairness preferences and a desire for cooperative outcomes. Dr. Millers' research reveals how emotions, induced positive moods, can significantly influence decision-making, leading individuals to adopt more benevolent and cooperative behaviors in game settings.
Enhancing Decision Making through Environmental Changes
Dr. Barbara Millers emphasizes three key approaches to improving decision making: understanding normative models, recognizing biases and noise, and altering decision environments. She underscores the importance of aligning decisions with normative standards, addressing cognitive and motivational biases, and creating decision-friendly environments. By guiding individuals to optimize their decision processes through knowledge and environmental adjustments, Dr. Millers advocates for maximizing decision quality and effectiveness.
How does our mood affect how cooperatively we act in a situation? Dr. Barbara Mellers, I. George Heyman University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, joins your host, Executive Director of the Alliance for Decision Education Dr. Joe Sweeney, to talk about the difference between judgments and decisions, studies on what happens when our desires and our sense of fairness are in conflict, and research on how a positive mood might make you act more cooperatively. You’ll also hear about the differences between how we should make decisions, how we actually make decisions, and what we can do to improve our decision-making.
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