Behavioural Mechanisms in the Social Sciences

Aim

After completion of the course, the student should at an advanced level be able to:

• formulate explanations of behavior based on the underlying cognitive mechanisms;
• evaluate compatibilities and incompatibilities between various mechanistic explanations of behavior;
• generalize specific behaviors into larger theoretical frameworks to explain social action;
• draw from various theoretical approaches to hypothesize specific behaviors under various social conditions;
• construct theoretical models that link micro-level behaviors to macro-level outcomes.

Content

This course will explore a broad range of mechanisms to explain human behavior at the individual level. It covers rational choice explanations of action, heuristic decision-making, such as satisficing, and cognitive biases that influence behavior. The material is interdisciplinary and may draw from fields such as sociology, economics, psychology, and neuroscience. The focus is placed on the micro foundations of behavior, but presented within the context of linking the micro-actions of social actors to macro-social outcomes.