Judgments & Decisions

Non-MBDS students should request a permit to register at https://www.sas.upenn.edu/lps/graduate/mbds/permit-request. This course addresses the ideal standards of judging and deciding, and the ways in which people fall short of these standards, with emphasis on the latter. We will discuss heuristics and other intuitive strategies that people may use in day-to-day thinking, and the biases that result from this use. We will apply this approach to shed light on faulty analyses in medicine, law, and everyday thinking. Understanding the ideals of good thinking and causes of our failure to conform to these ideals may ultimately help improve the decisions we make in private and professional lives. A limited number of seats in this class are reserved for upper level LPS undergraduate students who may be allowed to register with special permission from the instructor.