Presentation

I investigate the interplay between intuition, reflection, and emotion in economic decision-making.

The conventional model of Homo Economicus is based on assumptions of selfish preferences where utility depends only on personal payoffs, and full rationality where people have complete self-control when making decisions. In the real world, however, the fact that people are bound by rationality (i.e. limited by cognitive and emotional abilities) is well established. People engage in behaviours to help others although this is costly, engage in unfavourable gambles and postpone costly events to enjoy benefits today.

Intuitive and reflective modes of thinking have been proposed to account for many of the anomalies observed in the real world. Kahneman (2011) proposed that people use two ways of thinking - intuition (“System 1”) and reflection (“System 2”), and our behaviour is a consequence of how these two systems interact. Although dual-process models of thinking have received much attention, knowledge is currently lacking on the circumstances under which decisions are driven by intuitive and reflective thinking, respectively. Few studies have conducted experiments that exogenously induce processing modes before people make incentivised decisions.

In my current research I seek to systematically fill this research gap by employing experimental manipulations to induce intuitive and reflective modes of thinking; The overall objective is to document how different modes of thinking influence basic economic decision-making that is central to understanding a wide variety of everyday decisions: 1) prosocial choices 2) risky choices 3) intertemporal choices and 4) moral judgements.

Applying a dual-process framework to economic decisions raises a series of questions that this project will seek to answer: Do individuals act more or less selfishly when making intuitive as opposed to reflective decisions? Do individuals become more or less risk averse when making intuitive decisions? Do individuals become more or less present-oriented when making intuitive decisions? What biological, psychological and neural factors at the individual level mediate observed behaviours?

Much of my previous (and ongoing) research has been applied to resource allocation in the context of health care. The technical and moral complexities involved in health care priority setting (at both bedside and policy level) mean that decision makers are likely to rely on heuristics or intuitive approaches to simplify the difficult decisions at hand. In this process, important information or values are likely to be ignored, contributing to decisions and policies that are likely to be both inefficient and unfair. In my research on health care priority setting I seek to put some empirical flesh on some of the economic and philosophical bones that form the basis for health policy. Thereby providing increased understanding of the fundamentals concerning the motivation and underlying psychological mechanisms of decision makers when balancing, when allocating resources. Such insight is essential if health-care policies are to be properly designed and implemented in order to achieve an appropriate balance between different values.

My research is funded by the Ragnar Söderbergs Fellowship, the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation and the insurance company Länsförsäkringar.

Current research projects

  • Deciding, fast and slow: How intuitive and reflective thinking influence economic decision-making
  • Enhancing Individual, Organizational, and Societal Cooperation (ENCOOPER) 
  • Health care priority setting of orphan diseases 

Connect to Gustav at Researchgate

Brief facts

Education

  • Master of Science in Economics, Lund University 2004
  • PhD in Health Economics, Linköping University 2011 (Name of thesis: The art of saying no – the economics and ethics of health care rationing)


Teaching

In addition to supervising theses at different levels I currently teach the following undergraduate courses in economics:

  • Health economics and Ethics 
  • Behavioral Economics 
  • Microeconomic Analysis 

Network

  • JEDI Lab (Judgement, Emotion,Decision and Intuition Lab)
  • CSAN (Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience)
  • National Centre for Priority Setting in Health Care
  • Harvard University Program in Ethics and Health

Publications

2022

Tomislav Pavlović, Flavio Azevedo, Koustav De, Julián C Riaño-Moreno, Marina Maglić, Theofilos Gkinopoulos, Patricio Andreas Donnelly-Kehoe, César Payán-Gómez, Guanxiong Huang, Jaroslaw Kantorowicz, Michèle D Birtel, Philipp Schönegger, Valerio Capraro, Hernando Santamaría-García, Meltem Yucel, Agustin Ibanez, Steve Rathje, Erik Wetter, Dragan Stanojević, Jan-Willem van Prooijen, Eugenia Hesse, Christian T Elbaek, Renata Franc, Zoran Pavlović, Panagiotis Mitkidis, Aleksandra Cichocka, Michele Gelfand, Mark Alfano, Robert M Ross, Hallgeir Sjåstad, John B Nezlek, Aleksandra Cislak, Patricia Lockwood, Koen Abts, Elena Agadullina, David M Amodio, Matthew A J Apps, John Jamir Benzon Aruta, Sahba Besharati, Alexander Bor, Becky Choma, William Cunningham, Waqas Ejaz, Harry Farmer, Andrej Findor, Biljana Gjoneska, Estrella Gualda, Toan L D Huynh, Mostak Ahamed Imran, Jacob Israelashvili, Gustav Tinghög (2022) Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning PNAS Nexus Continue to DOI

Research

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