Program on Decision-making, Communication, and Uncertainty
The IGA Program on Decision-Making, Communication, and Uncertainty, headed by Robert Huckfeldt (Political Science) is an interdisciplinary initiative focusing on the use of experimental, computational, and observational methodologies for studying decision-making and communication in contexts marked by uncertainty.
Individual and group responses to uncertainty are a primary research focus across the social sciences, and uncertainty is a constant companion to individuals and groups as they attempt to reach decisions, form judgments, and communicate regarding a range of problems related to the investment and allocation of both individual and collectively shared resources. At a substantive level these problems include: financial investment decisions; the purchase of health care and education; social and cultural evolution; cooperation in the use of common pool resources; investments in political information; voting; participation in politics; and investments in social and human capital. Indeed, decision-making and communications marked by uncertainty are central to many of society’s most pressing problems, from the dynamics of democratic politics and political participation to effective reform of Social Security and health care finance.
These lines of research have given rise to distinctive theoretical and methodological approaches: the widespread use of experimentation, theories of cognition, theories of communication and cooperation, game theory, network theory, computational methods, and other individually and group based measurement strategies. These approaches will, of course, be integral to program efforts.
Participants come from the departments of anthropology, education, economics, environmental science and policy, political science, psychology, and sociology. The program sponsors an active seminars series.
For more information about group activities, contact Robert Huckfeldt.
The Network of Nations: The Evolution of International Relations, 1816 - 2005