George Loewenstein | |
|---|---|
.jpg) George Loewenstein | |
| Born | (1955-08-09)August 9, 1955 (age 69) |
| Nationality | American |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Yale University(Ph.D. 1985) Brandeis University(B.A. 1977) |
| Influences | Richard Thaler |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Behavioral economics Neuroeconomics |
| Institutions | Carnegie Mellon University |
| Notable ideas | Intertemporal choice |
| Website | |
George Loewenstein (born August 9, 1955)[1] is an American educator and economist. He is theHerbert A. Simon Professor ofEconomics andPsychology in theSocial and Decision Sciences Department atCarnegie Mellon University and director of the Center for Behavioral Decision Research. He is a leader in the fields ofbehavioral economics (which he is also credited with co-founding),neuroeconomics, Judgment and Decision Making.[2]
Loewenstein is the son ofSophie Freud and great-grandson of renownedpsychologist and pioneeringpsychoanalystSigmund Freud. He received his B.A. in economicsmagna cum laude fromBrandeis University in 1977 and Ph.D. in economics fromYale University in 1985 with thesis titledExpectations and Intertemporal Choice. He taught at theBooth School of Business at theUniversity of Chicago before taking up his present position at Carnegie Mellon University.[3] Loewenstein became a fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.[4]
Loewenstein is especially known for his work regardingintertemporal choice andaffective forecasting.[citation needed]
Hot-cold empathy gaps are one of Loewenstein's major contributions to behavioral economics. The crux of this idea is that human understanding is "state dependent," that is, when one is angry it is difficult to understand what it is like for one to be happy, and vice versa. The implications of this were explored in the realm of sexual decision-making, where young men in an unaroused "cold state" fail to predict that when they are in an aroused "hot state" they will be more likely to make risky sexual decisions, such asnot using a condom.[5]
Along with co-authors Christopher Hsee, Sally Blount and Max Bazerman, Loewenstein[6] pioneered research on evaluability and joint-separate preference reversals. This theory states that attributes of an option that are well known, such as GPA for college candidates, are given greater weight than attributes one knows little about, such as number of programs written in an obscure language, when one is evaluating options in isolation (separate evaluation). However, when two candidates are considered together, the less evaluable option is given increased weight because it is possible to make a simple comparison between the two options on that attribute (i.e., more or fewer programs written in an obscure language).
