Programme information
Decisions are an unavoidable fact of life. Human Decision Science trains you to analyse decision situations and apply the right tools in making strategic decisions.
As an example: imagine that a former city government has approved financing for a large infrastructure project that is of national interest but environmentally costly. In return for approving the project, the city government received compensation from the national government. Now, a new government has been elected and is confronted with a civic movement that wants to block the infrastructure project. If the new government gives in to the demands of the movement it will not only have to pay back the already spent compensation payments, but also lose its reputation nationwide. On the other hand, if it does not halt the project it will lose local support and perhaps the next elections.
Is there a way out of this dilemma? What procedures could help to reach a compromise between the different parties? Is a compromise possible at all? Should local or national interests be given more weight? These are the sorts of questions that you address in Human Decision Science.
What will you learn?
In this programme, you take courses at both the School of Business and Economics (SBE) and the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience (FPN), and your thesis is co-supervised by a staff member from each. While the first term consists of mandatory courses, the second term allows you to choose a specialisation from various application areas of human decision science. These specialisations include but are not limited to:
- Behavioural Economics
- Organisational Behaviour
- Consumer Behaviour
- Public Economics
- Sustainable Development
- Conflict Resolution
- Medical Decision Making
- Financial Decision Making.
During the programme, you learn:
- to analyse decision situations using the appropriate theoretical and empirical strategies
- to address the design of institutions, procedures and protocols, such that you and the parties involved can make good decisions
- the tools needed to improve the decision-making processes in your chosen field of application, in line with your interests and career goals.
Your thesis research might explore one or more themes from the application areas or the compulsory courses. You can conduct this research externally and/or abroad; to this end we collaborate with other institutes from Maastricht University and with the University of Milan.
