Course: Decision Making in a Complex World: Using Computer Simulations to Understand Human Behaviour

In this step, we want to show you how decision processes can be modelled without using utilities and weights. The models presented below are known in the literature as heuristics. …

Classical choice theory is very abstract. It does not pay attention to many aspects that the social sciences found to be important in human decision-making, such as time-pressure, importance of …

In this video we discuss the limitations of multi-attribute decision making, and reflect on how we make decisions in reality. Suppose you are making a decision to follow a certain …

Multi-Attribute Decision Analysis tells us how to make a decision when the question at hand is complex and has multiple consequences. It was not devised to describe how actual people …

In this week we experienced how simple models on norms and information sharing can produce interesting phenomena. Next week we explore how more theories can be integrated in simulations, and …

Classical choice theory was originally thought to be a descriptive theory. Descriptive theories are built to describe how people make decisions. For example, what do people choose, what happens with …

In this step, we will introduce a simple tool that is used for creating and carrying out simulations called NetLogo. You have already seen that even with simple models of …

Suppose you are in a hurry for a meeting, and you encounter a red traffic light for pedestrians. Do you cross the red light, or do you wait for the …

In this video we discuss the normative sensitivity of people and how to model that. It is being explained that people are heterogeneous concerning their sensitivity for norms. Moreover, similarity …

In the previous video, we said that utilities are just numbers chosen to represent preferences revealed by people’s choices. We can say that utilities are models of preferences or models …

In this video we discuss the sociality of people. We will discuss the principles of social learning, imitation, norms and conformity.In the following exercise, we want you to consider how …

In this video Kasia Abramczuk talks about the classic understanding of what a rational choice is.

Why on earth should we replicate humans in computational models, whilst there are actually almost eight billion real people we can study? And indeed, in the social sciences a lot …

Welcome to the course Decision making in a Complex World. Within the next three weeks, you will be exploring how human decision making can be represented in computer simulations. We …