Decision Science News

JOINT APPOINTMENT IN PSYCH AND PUBLIC POLICY @ PRINCETON

Princeton’s campus is easy on the eyes and Princeton’s psych department is easily among the best. You, dear reader, might be the policy-relevant psychologist they are looking for.

Princeton University’s Department of Psychology anticipates making an appointment at the associate or full professor level. The position will be a joint appointment between the Psychology Department and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (WWS), as part of an expanding joint venture in psychology and public policy. The candidate will teach some psychology courses and some courses that explore the links between psychology and public policy. Social psychologists with an interest in policy-relevant topics, including health and well-being, and cognitive psychologists specializing in judgment and decision making are invited to apply.

All applicants must have an active research program and demonstrated commitment to teaching and advising at both the graduate and the undergraduate levels. They should also be interested in interacting with neighboring social science disciplines (such as economics or politics).

Applicants should submit a c.v. with a cover letter summarizing their qualifications and names of three senior researchers who would be prepared to write letters on their behalf to: Search Committee SOC/JDM/WWS, Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Green Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540-1010. Applicants should submit materials as soon as possible; the search will remain open until the position is filled. Princeton University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. For information about applying to Princeton and how to self-identify, please link to http://web.princeton.edu/sites/dof/ApplicantsInfo.htm

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A NEW MEDICAL DECISION MAKING BLOG

Alan Schwartz of the University of Illinois-Chicago College of Medicine has started a new blog in advance of his forthcoming book “Making Medical Decisions: A Physician’s Guide” by himself and George Bergus (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Visit the blog at Making Medical Decisions.

Today, we quote an example of the quality content you will find there. It’s on swing weighting (see Decision Analysis and Behavioral Research, by Detlov von Winterfeldt and Ward Edwards, for more)

“To use swing weighting with a set of goals and a set of treatment outcomes, you determine from the patient, how each treatment outcome would impact each of their goals.

For example, if a patient has three goals:

• Live as long as possible
• Continue working at my job
• Keep my family financially secure

and is considering three treatments (A, B, and no treatment) with known outcomes, they might perceive the situation to look like this:

To determine the relative importance of their three goals, we ask which goal could result in the most important swing from worst possible achievement of that goal to best possible achievement. That is, if the patient were the worst possible scenario (no more than two years to live, unable to work for months, and sufficient insurance coverage), which one goal’s outcome would they want to swing to the best possible achievement? Would they prefer to improve their longevity (from “no more than 2 years” to “5+ years”), their ability to work (from “unable to work for months” to “immediately resume work”), or their financial security (from “sufficient coverage” to “sufficient coverage”)? If the patient prefers to swing Goal 1, that is considered her most important goal, and she can then proceed to choose which goal she would next choose to swing, out of those that remain”.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1239529607

THE INFLUENCE OF CEILING HEIGHT

DSN reports from Warsaw this week, where the SPUDM (Subjective Probability, Utility, and Decision Making) conference is wrapping up. Much knowledge was exchanged on the last day in a symposium on experience-based decisions.

In other news, always watching the journals for articles that are about to make a splash in the popular press, Decision Science News has identified this one from the latest Journal of Consumer Research.

The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing That People Use

Authors: Joan Meyers-Levy & Rui (Juliet) Zhu

Abstract: This article demonstrates that variations in ceiling height can prime concepts that, in turn, affect how consumers process information. We theorized that when reasonably salient, a high versus low ceiling can prime the concepts of freedom versus confinement, respectively. These concepts, in turn, can prompt consumers’ use of predominately relational versus item-specific processing. Three studies found support for this theorizing. On a variety of measures, ceiling height–induced relational or item-specific processing was indicated by people’s reliance on integrated and abstract versus discrete and concrete ideation. Hence, this research sheds light on when and how ceiling height can affect consumers’ responses.

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REVIEWS AND REVISIONS MADE PUBLIC

There is unnecessary secrecy around the review process. Forward-thinkers, such as those at Nature, have experimented with open peer review, but ultimately decided the world was not ready. However, large advances sometimes happen via small steps, and a toned-down version might open minds to open review.

The good people over at the Journal of Consumer Research are now making public what they call teaching sets(*), which are simply manuscripts and their accompanying reviews and revisions published for all to see:

http://ejcr.org/teaching-sets/teachingsets.html

While JCR’s idea is to “to make it easier for professors and their students/advisees to discuss the review process” (**), DSN thinks that opening up reviews in this way has an added benefit: it gives the world a privileged view into what a sample of informed readers really think. Do this long enough and we might approach something like scientific communication and advancement.

ADDENDUM:
In chatting with JCR after making this post, DSN has discovered that they too are not crazy about the name “teaching sets”. DSN is hereby soliciting better names for these things, which it will pass on to JCR. Some ideas:

Public Reviews
Open Reviews
Reviews Made Public
Declassified Reviews
Review Process Histories
Review Process Paper Trails
{your idea here}

Send your creative genius to dan at dangoldstein.com

(*) Decision Science News does not like the name “teaching sets”
(**) Personal communcation
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A FEW DAYS LEFT: SCP 2008 NEW ORLEANS DEADLINE EXTENDED

Consumer psychologists and budding consumer psychologists will be happy to know that the deadline for the Society for Consumer Psychology 2008 conference has extended its deadline until Thursday, August 9th, 2007. It’s not much time, but it’s time enough.

Previous Decision Science News post on SCP 2008.

GIGERENZER INTERVIEWED IN SALON.COM

Leading Judgment and Decision-Making scholar Gerd Gigerenzer was interviewed in Salon.com this week about his new book Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious in a piece amusingly titled “Should National Security Depend on Michael Chertoff’s Gut?”

The interview, which covers September 11th, fly balls, high school dropouts, illegal drugs, and the prostate, makes for attractive summer reading.

DECISION SCIENCE POSTDOC IN BASEL SWITZERLAND

Decision Science News has been to visit the Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences in Basel and can vouch for it as a center of excellence.

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral research scientist at the Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences at the Psychology Department of the University of Basel, Switzerland.

The ideal candidate will have completed his/her graduate work in the autumn or by the end of 2007 and will have interest in one or two of the following research areas: behavioral decision making, models of bounded rationality, or risk. Experience in computer modeling is desirable. Applicants may be of any nationality, and the required teaching may be conducted in German or English. The Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences at the University of Basel is directed by Ralph Hertwig. Please visit our website for more information: http://www.psycho.unibas.ch/cds

The position is available for two to six years at an annual starting salary of 91,664.30 Swiss Francs, with the earliest starting date of October 2007.

To apply, please send a CV, two letters of recommendation, reprints of published papers, and a cover letter describing your research interests and skills. Review of applications will start September 15 and continue until the position is filled.

Electronic applications should be submitted to: Laura Wiles at the Center for Cognitive and Decision Sciences. E-mail: Laura.Wiles at unibas.ch

If you wish to find out more about this opportunity, you may also contact Ralph Hertwig by phone at (+41 61) 267 06 11 or by e-mail at ralph.hertwig at unibas.ch

Decision Science News opts not to put circonflexes in post titles because they mess with RSS feed readers. Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ffgoatee/296439978/

DISASTERS: RECIPES AND REMEDIES

A Social Research Conference at The New School for Social Research
November 1 and 2, 2007 www.newschool.edu/disasters

This conference is convened at a time at which we are seriously threatened by an increasing number of disasters of all kinds: those conventionally considered “natural,” like hurricanes and tsunamis, and those normally considered man-made, like pandemics and large-scale bioterrorist attacks. This increasing threat is not only due to urbanization, globalization, coastal development, inadequate infrastructure design, and international hostilities, among other things, but is also a consequence of global warming.

The need for serious reflection on how we can best think about, prepare for, respond to and prevent disasters is urgent. At this conference, leading experts will explore the commonalities of all disasters. They will examine the unequal protection and treatment of populations made vulnerable by their location and or socioeconomic status; the impact of disasters on the economy and overall human development; how hazards develop into disasters; and how design factors either mitigate or amplify their effects.

The two-day conference is organized into 5 sessions:
I. Definitions: What We Talk about When We Talk about Disasters
II. Acquiring Vulnerabilities that Potentiate Disasters
III. Keynote by Nicholas Scoppetta, NYC Fire Commissioner
IV. What “Really” Happens: Preparations and Responses
V. The Impact of Disasters on Human Development

TICKETS
Regular full conference: $50; Regular single session: $12; ACLU members: $35; New School alumni: $15; Other full-time students: $15; Full-time New School students: Free

LOCATION
John L. Tishman Auditorium, The New School, 66 West 12th Street, NYC (between 5th and 6th Ave)

CONTACT
Social Research Conferences, The New School, 65 Fifth Avenue, Room 375, New York, NY 10003, t: 212.229.5776 x3121, f: 212.229.5476, socres@newschool.edu, www.newschool.edu/disasters

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996586683@N01/42148248/

PROFESSORSHIPS AT HARVARD’S KENNEDY SCHOOL

The Kennedy School of Government seeks to appoint exceptional scholars to tenure-track positions at the nexus of psychology, public policy and public leadership We especially seek individuals with research interests related to public policy and public leadership from the fields of social psychology, organizational behavior, personality psychology, behavioral decision research, sociology, and/or combinations thereof.

The Kennedy School has growing programs in judgment and decision making, broadly defined, with strength in such topics as emotional influences, negotiations, risk perception, resource allocation, trust, and group perception. For example, the Kennedy School has recently approved a field of interdisciplinary doctoral study in judgment and decision making, which draws primarily on faculty strengths in behavioral economics, organizational behavior, and psychology. The Kennedy School also has a new, state-of-the-art laboratory dedicated to supporting research in these areas. It includes, among other features, capability to collect biological measures as well as behavioral and cognitive measures.

Research and teaching excellence are the highest priorities for the position. Also important is enthusiasm for working in an environment that emphasizes the marriage of discipline-based scholarship and applied, public-policy scholarship. Applicants for the position should also be committed to teaching professionally oriented students, including middle-level and senior executives, in ways that will help them perform well in professional roles.

Interested candidates should mail their applications to Professor Jennifer S. Lerner, Faculty Search Committee, Kennedy School of Government, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 no later than November 1. Review of applicants will begin as soon as they are received, and early applications are encouraged. Applications should include a current curriculum vita, representative publications, and the names of those who can provide references. Qualified women and members of minority groups are encouraged to apply. Harvard University is an Affirmative Action/Equal opportunity employer.

JOURNAL OF CHOICE MODELLING

Open-access journals all officially the rage. Here’s another newbie, possibly of interest to you, the Decision Science News reader.

We are pleased to announce the launch of the “Journal of Choice Modelling”, a new open access peer reviewed journal dedicated to the field of choice modelling.

The journal publishes theoretical and applied papers in the field of choice modelling. It is not limited to one area of study, such as transport or marketing, but invites contributions from across a range of disciplines where the analysis of choice behaviour is a subject of interest. The journal also seeks to be non-specific in terms of the topics covered, with papers dealing with methodology, data, survey and experimental design all being of equal interest. Similarly, we welcome papers discussing the use of advanced choice modelling techniques in actual real world applications.

The Journal of Choice Modelling is an open access journal. Papers published in the journal can be freely accessed by anyone with an internet connection. This greatly increases visibility, and allows access by academics, practitioners and the general public, without the need for registering or paying access fees. The Journal of Choice Modelling is a web-based journal, with no paper version. This not only greatly reduces costs, but also significantly improves turnaround times.

We are now inviting contributions for the inaugural issues of the Journal of Choice Modelling. We welcome papers discussing any topic related to the study of choice behaviour.”

For detailed information on the journal including a listing of current members of the editorial board and submission guidelines, see: http://www.jocm.org.uk

Recommended reading:

Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation
Stated Choice Methods: Analysis and Applications
Applied Choice Analysis: A Primer