CogSci Colloquium: Jennifer Lerner (Harvard)

Title: Portrait of the angry decision maker

Abstract: Drawing on the Appraisal-Tendency Framework (Lerner & Keltner, 2000; 2001), I will present a series of studies from my lab revealing that incidental anger systematically biases judgment and decision making by heightening perceptions of controllability and certainty, decreasing perceptions of risk, and increasing risk taking.  I then will present a series of studies (also from my lab) revealing the ways in which such superficially “biased” responses prove to be both biologically adaptive and financially lucrative, especially for males.  Taken together, the studies make clear that simple conclusions about the role of emotion in rationality obfuscate complex patterns of human behavior.  Angry decision makers exhibit a predictable pattern of responses but the normative consequences of such responses hinge on specific situational contingencies.

Bio: Jennifer Lerner is a professor within the Management, Leadership, and Decision Science Area at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.  She is also Co-founder of the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory and Steering-Committee Member of Harvard’s Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative.The first psychologist in the history of the Harvard Kennedy School to receive tenure, her work draws insights from psychology, economics, and neuroscience in order to elucidate human judgment and decision making. Together with colleagues, she has developed a theoretical framework that successfully predicts the effects of specific emotions on specific judgment and choice outcomes. Applied widely, the framework has been especially useful in predicting emotion effects on perceptions of risk, economic decisions, and attributions of responsibility.  Across all areas, her work aims to expand the evidentiary base for designing public policies that maximize human wellbeing.