nep-neu New Economics Papers
on Neuroeconomics
Issue of 2020‒12‒07
four papers chosen by



  1. The impact of cognitive biases on professional decision-making: A review of four occupational areas By Berthet, Vincent
  2. The Influence Of Natural And Induced Emotional States On The Recognition Of Emotional Facial Expressions By Ekaterina Suchkova; Dmitry Lyusin
  3. Belief Elicitation When More Than Money Matters:Controlling for "Control". By Juan Dubra; Jean-Pierre Benoit; Giorgia Romagnoli
  4. Parental gender stereotypes and student wellbeing in China By Chu, Shuai; Zeng, Xiangquan; Zimmermann, Klaus F.

  1. By: Berthet, Vincent (University of Lorraine)
    Abstract: The author reviewed the research on the impact of cognitive biases on professional decision-making in four occupational areas (management, finance, law, and medicine). Two main findings emerged. First, the literature reviewed shows that professionals in these four areas are prone to cognitive biases. Framing, overconfidence, and anchoring are the most recurrent biases over the areas covered. Second, the level of evidence supporting the claim that cognitive biases impact professional decision-making differs across the areas covered. Research in finance relied primarily upon secondary data while research in medicine and law relied mainly upon primary data from vignette studies (both levels of evidence are found in management). Two research gaps are highlighted. The first one is a potential lack of ecological validity of the findings from vignette studies, which are numerous. The second is the neglect of individual differences in cognitive biases, which might lead to the false idea that all professionals are susceptible to biases, to the same extent. To address that issue, we suggest that reliable, specific measures of cognitive biases (which items are adapted to the context in which a particular decision is made) need to be improved or developed.
    Date: 2020–11–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:rdv73&r=all
  2. By: Ekaterina Suchkova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Dmitry Lyusin (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
    Abstract: There are a number of factors that influence emotion recognition, one of which is the perceiver’s emotional state. This study verifies the predictions of two theories concerning the influence of mood on emotion recognition. According to the affect-as-information theory, people in a positive mood are prone to a more global processing style and perceive emotional facial expressions more easily compared to those in a negative mood. The emotion congruence theory claims that people in a positive mood are more sensitive to positive expressions and people in a negative mood are more sensitive to negative expressions. These predictions were tested with the experimental paradigm using morphed faces developed by Jackson and Arlegui-Prieto. Study 1 used participants’ natural moods; its findings failed to replicate the main results of the original study. Study 2 used laboratory mood induction and showed that participants in a negative mood are more sensitive to negative emotions compared to those in positive mood. These findings support the emotion congruence theory. However, this result was obtained only for the participants with the most effective mood induction. The observed effects of mood are weak and fragile. For more persuasive results, a study with greater statistical power using more effective mood induction procedures is needed.
    Keywords: mood, emotion recognition, mood induction, facial morphing task.
    JEL: Z
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:121psy2020&r=all
  3. By: Juan Dubra; Jean-Pierre Benoit; Giorgia Romagnoli
    Abstract: Incentive compatible mechanisms for eliciting beliefs typically presume that theutilty of money is state independent, or that money is the only argument in utilityfunctions. However, subjects may have non-monetary objectives that confound themechanisms. In particular, psychologists have argued that people favour bets wheretheir ability is involved over equivalent random bets ña so-called preference for control.We propose a new belief elicitation method that mitigates the control preference. Usingthis method, we determine that under the ostensibly incentive compatiblematchingprobabilities method, our subjects report self-beliefs 18% higher than their true beliefsin order to increase control. Non-monetary objectives account for at least 68% of whatwould normally be measured as overconÖdence. Our mechanism can be used to yieldbetter measurements of beliefs in contexts beyond the study of overconÖdence. Ourpaper also contributes to a reÖned understanding of control. We find that control manifests itself only as a desire for betting on doing well; betting on doing badly isperceived as a negative.
    Keywords: Elicitation, OverconÖdence, Control. Experimental Methods
    JEL: D3
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mnt:wpaper:2001&r=all
  4. By: Chu, Shuai (Renmin University of China and Global Labor Organization.); Zeng, Xiangquan (Renmin University of China and Global Labor Organization.); Zimmermann, Klaus F. (UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, CEPR and Global Labor Organization)
    Abstract: Non-cognitive abilities are supposed to affect students' educational performance, who are challenged by parental expectations and norms. Parental gender stereotypes are shown to strongly decrease student wellbeing in China. Students are strongly more depressed, feeling blue, unhappy, not enjoying life and sad with no male-female differences while parental education does not matter.
    Keywords: Gender identity, gender stereotypes, student wellbeing, non-cognitive abilities, mental health, subjective wellbeing
    JEL: I12 I26 I31 J16 O15
    Date: 2020–11–18
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unm:unumer:2020052&r=all

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