Elective course.
Psychology can inform policy makers to better anticipate behaviors in response to proposed policy initiatives and to design policy frameworks motivating people to act in ways beneficial for themselves and for society.
The course is focusing on psychological theories on how people perceive and judge situations, how they make decisions individually and in groups, what is the role of emotions and social networks in changing behavior and attitudes, and why subjective well-being is a better indicator of social progress than GDP.
Lectures, followed by class discussions will introduce the topics and investigate their relevance to public policy. Students will be encouraged to think about biases influencing their decisions and identify real world problems/issues they care about and design interventions to address them, using the learned psychological theories. They will be asked to explore these issues more in-depth in a shorter and a longer written assignment.
- Instructor: Kinga Goncz