An overreliance on slow as opposed to fast learning may explain why problem gamblers will persist with losing strategies well after recreational gamblers have given up.
Experimental economist Marina Agranov demonstrates that committees that face uncertainty about the future size of a surplus and use a unanimity voting rule may result in more efficient outcomes as compared with a majority voting rule.
Professor Michael Alvarez is directing a yearlong project to examine which election conspiracy theories have taken hold in the 2024 election season and how to rebut them.
A new paper identifies the potential mechanisms through which social media can create unhealthy modes of human interaction.
Video Lightbox
Meet the Social Sciences Faculty
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience; Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair, Caltech Brain Imaging Center; Director, Caltech Brain Imaging Center
Dean Mobbs
Caltech allows researchers to be risky. Risk is an important part of science. It's where discovery occurs."
There are good reasons to do experiments. Applying theories in the real world before testing them, and ruining someone’s real life, seems too high a cost."
Data are powerful. Understanding human behavior with real-world data provides important insights into policy design aimed at improving consumer welfare and market efficiency."
Experiments are starting to get incorporated into mainstream economics but are still a relatively new tool. Caltech has been a powerhouse in experimental economics from the beginning, and it's so exciting to join the tradition."
There are other institutions that are wonderful at teaching and wonderful at research. But at Caltech, it seems to me that to be wonderful at teaching means that you teach the students what the frontier of research is—that teaching and research are not different things."
Kay Sugahara Professor of Social Sciences and Statistics
Jonathan N. Katz
Money is very important in politics, but all the previous studies about campaign finance were restricted to relatively large donors, leading to a skewed picture of this important political activity. Given changes in technology, smaller donors are becoming both more numerous and important."
Bren Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Biology
Ralph Adolphs
Caltech's small size really fosters interdisciplinary science. I exchange ideas with people from different fields when walking between my lab and my office, and I often run late to lunch at the Athenaeum because I catch up with so many students and faculty who I run into along the way."
Caltech pioneered the use of mathematical models to explain political behavior, including voting and bargaining. The research I do would not be possible without these early contributions."
Richard N. Merkin Professor of Mathematical Finance
Jakša Cvitanić
We create an environment in which interdisciplinary, original research involving the social sciences and quantitative fields can thrive. It boils down to two things, which are education and research. There are not many places like Caltech where students can learn from experts from so many different fields in a natural way."
Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics; T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience Leadership Chair; Director, T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience
Colin F. Camerer
One of the hallmarks of Caltech's HSS division, besides scientific excellence, is that people here wander and end up working on things in very unusual combinations."