This is a graduate seminar for Ph.D. students interested in behavioral science. The course will be divided into two parts.
One part (taught by Professor Risen) will cover current topics related to the psychology of intuitive belief and judgment, including 1) superstition and magical thinking, 2) more “false” beliefs (placebo effects, conspiracy beliefs, empty claims, and fake news), 3) information avoidance, and 4) and connecting across lines of difference. These topics have been selected to introduce you to the ideas that I have been playing with in hopes of inspiring collaboration.
The second part (taught by Professor O’Brien) will cover current topics related to the psychology of change, including 1) how people judge change from the past, 2) how people experience change in the present, 3) how people forecast future change, and 4) how people make and manage change. For each of these topics we will discuss recurring themes such as people’s accuracy vs. inaccuracy in change judgment and how people differentially judge change in themselves vs. others. Again, these topics have been selected to introduce you to the ideas that I have been playing with in hopes of inspiring collaboration.
Students are expected to read the assigned articles in advance, actively participate in class discussions, generate original research ideas, and, provide critical and constructive comments on classmates’ research ideas. The main purpose of this course is to stimulate research, and as part of this class you will be asked to develop two mini research proposals (one should be related to the topics covered in the first half of the class and the second to the second half of the class). Each proposal should include an experiment that you could conduct. After getting feedback on the two proposals, students will choose one of the two to present to class and to submit as a final paper.
