Humans beings behave in ways that do not show great decision-making. Auditors are human beings. They will have bias too. How can auditors improve their behavior? How can we go about banishing bias in audit? Bias in Audit People’s decisions do not always correspond to the decisions of an optimizing robot. The same is true…
Category: Decision Making
The Perils Of Empathy (And Definitions)
A special holiday post on why empathy isn’t necessarily a good thing, the perils of empathy. Paul Bloom’s book Against Empathy argues that empathy isn’t the panacea that it is sometimes held up to be. Definitions Matter At its heart Bloom makes a relatively plausible argument seem outrageous. He does this by relying on our…
Cool Result: What Next?
Adam Alter’s Drunk Tank Pink is a fun book. It follows in a long tradition of behavioral books — some by psychologists, some by marketers — that describe interesting quirks found in academic research. Much of Alter’s focus is on the subtle influence of color on us. Unfortunately some of the influences seem too subtle…
A Marketing Man’s Thoughts On Ads And Information
Following on from last week’s blog I wanted to note a few other great features of Matthew Willcox’s The Business of Choice. Let’s hear this A Marketing Man’s Thoughts On Ads And information. Too Much Information On a theoretical side, he discusses the problem of too much information. I found his take appealing. He notes…
Marketers Are Human
Matthew Willcox’s The Business of Choice: Marketing to Consumers Instincts won the AMA’s Berry Book Award and I can see why. Willcox reviews many of the key points from the best academic books. For example, Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow and Vlad Griskevicius and Douglas Kenrick’s The Rational Animal. Where Willcox adds value is…
Optimal Distinctiveness And Social Influence
Jonah Berger’s Invisible Influence is in the tradition of informative marketing books based upon behavioral research, think Dan Ariely, Sheena Iyengar, or Chip Heath. He concentrates on optimal distinctiveness and social influence. Some of the details people may know from elsewhere but all of which are interesting. Optimal Distinctiveness And Social Influence One of the…
Behavioral Economics Sports Bingo
A bit of an unusual post today. It being summer, therefore, here is a behavioral economics sports bingo card. Behavioural Economics Sports Bingo Game I’m looking for some help in assessing my new Behavioral Economics Sports Bingo game. The idea is that when you are watching sports you lookout for interesting comments from commentators, players,…
Tackling Big Problems With Behavioral Science
Jason Furman (former chair of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers) discusses tackling big problems with behavioral science. He says behavioral studies can help address four major issues in the economy. Tackling Big Problems With Behavioral Science He isn’t joking when he says they are major. They really are. The four he choose are: 1)…
The Failure Of Markets
I very much enjoyed John Cassidy’s How Markets Fail. It is an ambitious piece in which he tries to describe how economic thought has impacted real-world markets. He has a special focus on the collapse of the financial markets in 2007/8 and the economic thought behind the failure to regulate the markets properly. What does he say about the failure…
The Trump Fallacy
Dixit and Nalebuff have great skill in popularizing game theory. Today I will detail a problem that I will call The Trump Fallacy. Theory And Understanding The World Their work is full of interesting examples and useful ways of looking at sometimes tricky concepts. They are strong believers in having theory to back up ideas…
