Comments on: Gerd Gigerenzer to speak in London, Sept 23rd, 2008 http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/2008/09/01/gerd-gigerenzer-to-speak-in-london-sept-23rd-2008/ A website about decision research in Decision Science News is a website about decision research in Marketing, Psychology, Economics, Behavioral Economics, Finance, Medicine, Law, Management, Public Policy, Statistics, Computer Science & Interaction Design. Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:56:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: tutu http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/2008/09/01/gerd-gigerenzer-to-speak-in-london-sept-23rd-2008/comment-page-1/#comment-2535 tutu Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:37:00 +0000 http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/?p=451#comment-2535 e latter; in fact, TWO items of information came immediately to mind – the fact that Detroit is famous for producing motor vehicles, and the fact that many famous bands have come from Detroit. It was also curious the way Gigerenzer cited the Dhami and Ayton research on magistrates’ bail decision making. One of the key things about this research was that magistrates frequently did not use the information they were supposed to be using (as specified by legal guidelines). This seems to be at odds with the notion of heuristics being associated with accurate judgments. e latter; in fact, TWO items of information came immediately to mind – the fact that Detroit is famous for producing motor vehicles, and the fact that many famous bands have come from Detroit.

It was also curious the way Gigerenzer cited the Dhami and Ayton research on magistrates’ bail decision making. One of the key things about this research was that magistrates frequently did not use the information they were supposed to be using (as specified by legal guidelines). This seems to be at odds with the notion of heuristics being associated with accurate judgments.

]]> By: Bookmarks about Adaptive http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/2008/09/01/gerd-gigerenzer-to-speak-in-london-sept-23rd-2008/comment-page-1/#comment-362 Bookmarks about Adaptive Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:15:19 +0000 http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/?p=451#comment-362 [...] - bookmarked by 1 members originally found by baliomega on 2008-11-03 Gerd Gigerenzer to speak in London, Sept 23rd, 2008 http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/?p=451 - bookmarked by 5 members originally found by [...] [...] – bookmarked by 1 members originally found by baliomega on 2008-11-03 Gerd Gigerenzer to speak in London, Sept 23rd, 2008 http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/?p=451 – bookmarked by 5 members originally found by [...]

]]> By: David Hardman http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/2008/09/01/gerd-gigerenzer-to-speak-in-london-sept-23rd-2008/comment-page-1/#comment-259 David Hardman Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:26:09 +0000 http://www.decisionsciencenews.com/?p=451#comment-259 What was most fascinating about the Gigerenzer presentation at Westminster Business School was the reaction of the economists, as evidenced by their exceedingly lengthy questions (or, to be more accurate, speeches). One of my colleagues timed the first question at 10 minutes long. Clearly, many economists are rattled by the way psychology is encroaching on their subject matter. For behavioral economists, there's no problem, but many people still seem to be trying to defend classical notions of rationality. The YouTube exchanges between Dan Ariely and Tim Harford are fairly indicative of the way the arguments go. Without going into details here, I think both sides actually have some valid points. But on the whole, I think we'd have to conclude that rational economic man (or 'the rational actor' as we say now) is dead. Gigerenzer dealt with the points very well. That said, I'm not convinced by all that Gigerenzer has to say. There's published evidence of people using more than one item of information when making the two-alternative judgments (e.g. city size) of the kind Gigerenzer talks about. The specific question posed to the Westminster audience was deciding whether Milwaukee or Detroit had the larger population. I've heard of both, but only know anything about the latter; in fact, TWO items of information came immediately to mind - the fact that Detroit is famous for producing motor vehicles, and the fact that many famous bands have come from Detroit. It was also curious the way Gigerenzer cited the Dhami and Ayton research on magistrates' bail decision making. One of the key things about this research was that magistrates frequently did not use the information they were supposed to be using (as specified by legal guidelines). This seems to be at odds with the notion of heuristics being associated with accurate judgments. What was most fascinating about the Gigerenzer presentation at Westminster Business School was the reaction of the economists, as evidenced by their exceedingly lengthy questions (or, to be more accurate, speeches). One of my colleagues timed the first question at 10 minutes long. Clearly, many economists are rattled by the way psychology is encroaching on their subject matter. For behavioral economists, there’s no problem, but many people still seem to be trying to defend classical notions of rationality. The YouTube exchanges between Dan Ariely and Tim Harford are fairly indicative of the way the arguments go. Without going into details here, I think both sides actually have some valid points. But on the whole, I think we’d have to conclude that rational economic man (or ‘the rational actor’ as we say now) is dead. Gigerenzer dealt with the points very well.

That said, I’m not convinced by all that Gigerenzer has to say. There’s published evidence of people using more than one item of information when making the two-alternative judgments (e.g. city size) of the kind Gigerenzer talks about. The specific question posed to the Westminster audience was deciding whether Milwaukee or Detroit had the larger population. I’ve heard of both, but only know anything about the latter; in fact, TWO items of information came immediately to mind – the fact that Detroit is famous for producing motor vehicles, and the fact that many famous bands have come from Detroit.

It was also curious the way Gigerenzer cited the Dhami and Ayton research on magistrates’ bail decision making. One of the key things about this research was that magistrates frequently did not use the information they were supposed to be using (as specified by legal guidelines). This seems to be at odds with the notion of heuristics being associated with accurate judgments.

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