Ryan Hamilton – How You Decide: The Science of Human Decision Making

Have you ever wondered why your neighbors painted their door green? Did you wish you could not reach for those snacks while watching TV? Have you ever walked up and down the toy aisles to find a birthday present and left without buying anything, just to stop at the convenience store on the way home and buy the only toy on the shelf?

The activities ofchoosing a paint color, changing a habit, and purchasing a gift might seem unrelated at first glance. There are many examples of the fascinating process of human decision making. Thousands of times a day, we are presented with choices that need to be made. Our brains are constantly working to solve decision puzzles from the mundane to the life-changing.

How do we do it?

In recent centuries, economists, psychologists, and sociologists have joined the investigation of the topic, which has DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch DropCatch People are fascinated by how the mind works. It’s important to understand how we came to the decision that led to those mistakes in order to learn from them.

The factors that help us decide who to trust and who to disbelieve, as well as the food you are likely to purchase in the market tomorrow, are all theories. Some of the past theories describe decision making as it should be, not as it often is. Others have caught on in the minds of the general public and been published in the popular press, only to be later disproven. The information presented in this course is different.

In. How you decide is the science of human decision making. Professor Ryan Hamilton, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Goizueta Business School, uses research to understand and explain human decision making. Professor Hamilton shares what decision science has revealed through empirically tested theories that make false predictions and lead to testable hypotheses.

Professor Hamilton uses the manufacturing process as a metaphor to present the truths.

• the informational raw materials you use as inputs to the decision-making process
• how your cognitive machinery prepares and assembles those raw materials into a decision
• the motivational control mechanisms that govern and tweak your cognitive machinery to produce a decision.

Every lecture has Dr. Hamilton’s sense of wonder and enthusiasm for the subject of human decision making, solid foundation in the scientific method, and pervasive sense of humor. While most of us think we make decisions by examining our options rationally and reaching a logical conclusion, Dr. Hamilton shares a more interesting reality of fascinating experiments, often irrational choices, and sometimes counterintuitive results.

Based on the results of his own published experiments and those of his colleagues, Dr. Hamilton presents information that allows you to better understand the choices you face every day, the tools you can use to make the best decisions for your personal goals, and how to most effectively influence the decisions of others Whether your goal is to improve your personal life or to apply decision science to your business, you will find the up-to-date research results and practical advice you need in this course.

There are everyday scenarios.

Everyone has routines that have been in place for weeks, months or even years. These routines can obscure the fact that you are making choices in the routine. You go to the store to buy coffee. You have been drinking this coffee for so long that you don’t even consider the purchase a decision. The store manager rearranged the shelves to include five new brands and six new flavors of your favorite brand. You pick up a new bag and smell it. You can’t seem to decide what to buy. What is happening here?

You will learn in this course.

• how the number and placement of choices affect your decisions and can even keep you from making any decision at all
• how the memory of a song or a joke can cause you to make specific choices months or years later
• whether or not subliminal messages can cause you to make decisions against your will
• how the blood flow in your brain can be altered by advertising without any conscious thought on your part
• how heuristics, while often helpful, can sometimes lead to stereotyping and other poor decisions.

You will learn how you can affect the decisions of others. For a long time, your children were paid to do chores around the house. You watched as they learned to make their beds, do their own laundry, mow the yard, and even do the dusting. You were shocked to see that they were filthy when you visited their first apartments. How could they make a decision like that? What went wrong? You will investigate.

• the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
• how reason-based decision making that seems rational can lead us astray
• the power of partitioning to affect your own decisions and others’
• how to most effectively break a bad habit or establish a good one
• why the commonly used list of pros and cons can actually be a poor decision tool.

What tools can we use to make better decisions?

Whether you need to buy a car, sell your business, relocate, find a new job, or choose a caregivers for your parents, you always want to make the best decision for the occasion. You will learn about useful topics in this practical course.

• the importance of reference points and how they are interpreted (and misinterpreted) by your cognitive machinery
• how the halo effect influences your decisions for better and for worse
• why we often choose irrelevant reasons to justify our decisions
• how intuitive processing and heuristics come into play when our cognitive resources are a mismatch for the decision at hand
• why we use the tool of replacement in decision making and how it can lead us astray
• how to “stack the deck” to influence the decision making of another person.

Dr. Hamilton emphasizes the complex nature of human beings and the many environmental, physical, and emotional aspects of life that can impact any specific decision at any given moment. He gives you the scientifically based tools you need to improve your personal and business decisions, even though he cautions you to have realistic expectations.