By 劳里 Laker '12
杰西卡 Hoel's Block 1 class 实验 and 行为 经济学: Social 首选项 wants to put 一切 we know about 转变 经济学 to the test.
"In 经济学, 新古典主义 theory 预测 that 人 are purely 自私, 动机 only by their own 自身利益 and 实现。” 解释了 Hoel. "Of 当然, 经济学家 as far back has Adam Smith have known this isn't 字面上的 true, and now modern 经济学家 are 工作 to write formal models of how and why 人 care for other 人, and how it 影响 决定 of all kinds."
The class, 最终 in an 实验 进行了 on 校园, deals with 讨论 of 利他主义, 公平, 互惠互利, spite, and 社会 norms. These 的概念, when placed in an 经济 结构, 提供 学生 with an 机会 to learn 实验 设计 and 团队合作, as well as how 科学 方法 are 应用 to 社会 科学 fields.
"The 行为 part of the 课程 真的 感兴趣 me," says Sam 阿伦森 '20, an 经济学 major with 设计 on moving into 策略 and 咨询 after 毕业 next spring.
“经济 理论 cannot be 探索 with models alone, so a lot of the 实验 aspect of the class was 真的 令人兴奋的. We 合并 a lot of 心理 元素 into our work, and 杰西卡 真的 pushed us into areas of 学术 不舒服 and 新奇, too."
That push into new areas is 深思熟虑的 on Hoel's part. In fact, her 教学大纲 and 阅读 材料 for this class are vastly 不同的 from what are 通常 带来了 to the 教室 for a 课程 in 行为 经济学.
“之前 this class 开始的时候, I 收集 every 教学大纲 for 行为 经济学 I could find and made a 电子表格 of the 一般 used 材料. Only 13% of 论文 包括 on other 教学大纲 研究了 a non-WEIRD 主题 池”, she 解释了.
WEIRD 站 for 西方, 的教育, 工业化, Rich, and 民主. 学者 use the term to 批评 the fact that most 研究 on human 决策 has 研究了 大学 学生 in the U.S. and 欧洲.
"I made sure to weight my 教学大纲 with a higher 百分比 of 研究 of other groups of 人 (70% non-WEIRD!). I wanted the class to be 暴露 to 实验 and data that 更好的 代表 人类."
具有挑战性的 材料 and ideas lead to 具有挑战性的 实验中, even for 教授.
Hoel ran a 类似的 class last year, and while the 校园 实验 was 成功, it was also 批评. "'How do you know your 结果 aren't unique to CC 学生?' 人 asked me in 学术 研讨会. Good 点,” Hoel says. So, she 达到了 out to the Busara Center for 行为 经济学 in 内罗毕 Kenya. For five years now, Busara has been 运行 心理学 and 经济学 实验 with non-WEIRD 人口. They 开始 in Kenya, and now have 项目 in 乌干达, 坦桑尼亚, 尼日利亚, 埃塞俄比亚, Peru, Fiji, and India. During 研究生 school Hoel lived and worked in Kenya for more than a year, and knew some of the staff at Busara.
"I told my 朋友 at Busara about my class, our first 实验 last year, and how 专用的 my 学生 are to 创建 new 知识 for the world. A recent CC grad has been 工作 at Busara for two years (乔治娜 Mburu '17), so they 已经 knew that CC 学生 are 特殊的. The 领导人 at Busara were 感兴趣。” she 解释了.
"The CC Social 科学 执行 委员会 授予 us some money, as did the Dean's office SEGway 程序. I spent last summer 工作 with my 学生 合著者 布丽姬特 Galaty '21 (one of the 学生 in last year's 类), 另一个 合著者 Prachi Jain, and 几个 staff 成员 at Busara to plan and 改善 the study, and we're now set to run the same 实验 in Kenya that we ran at CC last year."
This year, the class took it to the next level. 而不是 of 接近 Busara after the 学生的 实验 was 完成后, this time a team from Busara Skyped in from Kenya to 批判 the 学生的 ideas and help decide which 实验 the 学生 would run on campus.
"The class both takes 优势 of, and is put under 巨大的 的压力, by the Block Plan," says Cole Simon '20, also an 经济学 major.
进行 one 大规模的 实验 is hard 足够的. 投手 and 分享 that 实验 to 研究人员 in 另一个 的国家, 然而, adds a 某些 level of 压力.
The 实验 设计 改变了 大大 over the 课程 of the block - just 另一个 挑战 thrown in for good 测量! 最终, the 类的 实验 was 设计 to test how types of anger affect 亲社会的 的行为, such as 慷慨 or 情境 善意. 学生 搭 the 实验 to Busara in the second week of the block, and ran the 实验 in the final week - 离开 two days to 行为 an 实验 across the 全部 of campus!
"We used 基于游戏的 实验 to 介绍 three 不同的 groups to 不同的 levels of 愤怒,” 解释了 Ben Seitz-Sitek '20, a 电脑 科学 major.
“有 the first level, where you have anger to punish 一个人 for 某物 that 发生了 by 事故, 有 the level where you're angry 因为 you were hurt on 的目的, and then 有 the final level which is a 结合 of the first two."
“我们 看 at how 挫折 影响 your 社会 首选项 and 选择. Under 困难 的情况下, when 一个人 错误 you, we test how that 影响 your 反应 to that 人, and if it 影响 your 选择 社会。” adds Simon.
Games in 经济学 aren't what you or I would 一定 think of as games. 他们 实际上 模型, or 假设 情况下, 设计 to 说明 经济 理论.
The 学生 决定 to use a 独裁者 game to test their ideas. One person is given some money, say $10, while the other person starts with 没有什么. The 独裁者 is asked how much of their money they want to give to the other person.
"With that game 基金会 for 实验 设计, as well as the 研究 论文 we read, it 允许 us the 自由 to modify the games for our own needs - 结合 情感 研究 and the game 反应,” adds 阿伦森.
The 实验 was a 咆哮的 成功. The class 调查 more than 500 人 in just 48 hours of data 集合. The 最初的 发现 结论 that intention-based anger 减少了 慷慨 and 影响 社会 首选项 the most.
"Our 初步 结果 show that when 一个人 使 you on 的目的, you are less 慷慨的 toward them. If they wrong you by 事故, you are not less 慷慨的. But if you are 委屈 by random 机会, you might take it out on other 人,” 解释了 Hoel.
"But the 学生 and I only had two hours of data 分析 before our 演讲 to the 校园, so these 结果 are very 初步!"
“我们 able to 行为 a 大规模的 study across 校园, expand and 现在 that to 合作者 in 另一个 的国家, and have 选项 for 出版 down the line. The catch is we have to do that all in 三个半 weeks!" says Simon.
The Busara 中心的 role in how 的事情 move 向前 is 鼓励. A 连续 协作 with 科罗拉多州 大学 学生 and 教师 is 某物 that Hoel is very 乐观 about, also.
"It's rare to see an 经济 实验 run on two 大陆 in 串联, but it's 至关重要的 to 更好的 理解 human 决策。” says Hoel. "CC 学生 have great 的想法, but to run these 实验 in both 的地方 得当, we need help. Busara has the 技术 and 上下文 专业知识 to make sure we 设计 实验 that will teach us 的事情 about both WEIRD and non-WEIRD 人. We're 兴奋 for their 伙伴关系 with CC and a 协作 的关系 之间的 研究人员, 学者, and 学生."