Sheryl Ball (Virginia Tech)

Event
Monday, September 25, 2017 - 3:40 pm to 5:00 pm
Event Type: 

Sheryl BallLocation: 368A Heady Hall

Description: Sheryl Ball
"Behavioral and Neural Evidence on Decision Making Under Uncertainty"

Abstract: Humans have their own preferences over uncertainty of potential outcomes during decision making. We use experimental and neural data in conjunction with behavioral models to explore how people assign value to uncertain options. For example, others influence our real life decisions. We model this kind of ‘social nudge’ and show that individuals value conformity in risky decision making environments, and that this causes people to alter their choices between social and non social environments. In fact, it is possible to observe the value signal associated with conformity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Related work explores why adolescents take risks which jeopardize their health, and how people evaluate vague gambles that have both unknown probabilities and outcomes.

Contact Person: Elizabeth Hoffman

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