Heuristics & Biases

Since the 1960s researchers at Decision Research have been conducting research designed to reveal the cognitive and affective mechanisms that are utilized in human decision making. People make decisions using a variety of different strategies. These strategies rely on different mental processes that may bias individuals’ decisions in different ways. Our research in this area is designed to determine what cognitive and affective mechanisms are utilized when different strategies are evoked, what biases the use of these mechanisms are likely to produce, and what techniques may be implemented to avoid the possible negative repercussions of these biases.

Principal Investigators: Paul Slovic, Daniel Västfjäll, Ola Svenson, Joseph Arvai