Empowering people one decision at the time
JDM LAB is a research laboratory at the Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization (DPSS) of the University of Padua. We conduct research, consulting, and outreach activities to improve people's and society's well-being.
Our mission is to improve the quality of the decisions that people make because all our actions are the result of a decision. Decades of research in psychology and behavioral economics demonstrated that our decisions are systematically biased and that, as individuals, we are very bad at predicting what will make us happy.
Everyone makes mistakes when deciding, even experts. That is why, knowing how to avoid the distortions that characterize our decisions is also fundamental for companies and public officers.
Teams that are good at discussing and deciding effectively are more productive, have less conflicts and waste less resources improving the outcomes of a company or the virtuous management of public resources.
Through choice architecture, it is possible to create conditions that promote effective decision making, to achieve goals, beat the competitors or enjoy life more.
Below are listed some of the domains in which JDM LAB is currently active:
- Everyday life decisions
- Economic decisions
- Team decisions
- Choice architecture
This is our current range of services; however, we have skillsets within our group that allow us to expand our research interests and offerings depending on your needs. JDM LAB is ever evolving and loves taking on new challenges. Don’t hesitate to contact us.
Contact us to receive more information on how we can help you improve your decisions or the decisions of your team.
Pro-environmental behaviors
In the JDM LAB, we investigate pro-environmental behaviors, especially how climate change risk perception and resource scarcity impact sustainable behavior. In order to favor pro-environmental behaviors, we need to understand how risks associated with climate change are perceived by the general public. We are also studying the processes implied in those behaviors in order to create science-based and data-driven interventions in real-world settings. Due to the complexity of climate changes is to understand how to understand all people the objective probability of this risk and the consequences of an excessive consumption of limited resources in order to encourage a more aware. Furthermore, in JDM Lab we study the processes involved in sustainable behaviors in order to create evidence-based interventions Due to the complexity of climate change, it needs to be studied from a variety of points of view, e.g., political, geographical, social, psychological, and so on. Here in the JDM LAB, we contribute to the field, focusing mainly on better understanding the perception of climate change and specific pro-environmental behaviors (e.g., consumerism of reusable products).
Our main research questions are: How do people perceive climate change, both emotionally and cognitively? How do people make decisions related to resource scarcity (for example, economic or environmental)? How can we increase sustainable behaviors?
If you find these topics interesting, you can find some reading here:
Scarcity of resources
Have you ever felt like you don't have enough resources to do something? For example, not having enough money to buy something you wanted, or not having enough time to spend with your family? You have probably found yourself constantly thinking about how to get out of this condition, always and constantly thinking about possible solutions. Well, this is what happens when you experience a condition of scarcity, that is, not having enough of something to satisfy your needs to such an extent that you are in a tunnel reducing the possibility of finding other viable options to solve your situation.
The concept of scarcity is applicable to various areas, and in our workshop we decided to focus more on the study of scarcity of money and time. Is the cognitive process that is activated in conditions of scarcity of different resources the same?
Could the perception of not having enough economic and time resources influence our prosocial behaviors? What role can the perception of scarcity play in implementing pro-environmental behaviors and sustainable consumption choices? Want to learn more about it? Here are some suggested readings:
Risk perception
The risk perception is a cognitive process involved in various daily activities and which guides people's behavior when faced with decisions involving potential risks. Research has shown that in many cases there is a discrepancy between the subjective perception of risk and its objective assessment. In short, people sometimes are concerned about activities that are not actually dangerous and underestimate the danger of activities that could have very serious consequences. Within the JDM Lab we study how risk perception is influenced by personality traits (such as trait emotional intelligence) and how people manage the stress associated with intrinsic uncertainty in risks, in order to understand the relationship between the emotional and cognitive processes associated with the perception of risk.
Furthermore, we are interested in understanding how perceiving risk as high or low affects decisions made by people, and how emotional regulation affects those decisions. Finally, in collaboration with theIsola della Calmawe investigate the development of risk perception in children as a function of the family, school, and socio-economic context in which they grow up. If you are interested in these topics, you can find some reading here:
Behavioral finance
The behavioral finance studies financial markets and investors’ behavior to understand the anomalies and errors that can be observed in the markets and in investment choices. Thanks to the integration of disciplines like psychology, behavioral finance allowed to overcome the classic vision of a rational agent, fully informed and able to compute the expected value of every decision. Starting from the work of Kahneman and Tversky, it has been shown that investors decide based on their emotions rather than deliberate reasons. The main contribution of behavioral finance has been to shift the focus on subjective factors inevitably involved in decision-making processes that have been traditionally ignored by classical economic-financial theories. In the JDM LAB, we study the way differences in the perception and regulation of emotions (e.g.,emotional intelligence) influence investors’ judgments and decisions.
We are interested in the way these individual differences influence the perception of the relationship between risk and expected return of investments.
Prosocial behaviors
The term prosocial behavior generally refers to all the things a person does to benefit another person or society instead of themselves. A variety of different behaviours and actions are part of this very broad category. For example, helping other people, sharing resources, donating or volunteering, cooperatingare all types of prosocial behaviors that are studied from different perspectives. There are also numerous reasons that can lead us to be prosocial, from a sense of empathy and honest concern for others, to more selfish reasons such as a confirmation of status or hope for reciprocity in the future.
Because this topic is so varied and multifaceted, here in the lab we focus primarily on the study of charitable giving. Mostly through experiments and questionnaires, we are looking for answers to questions such as "What resources do people prefer to donate? What aspects of the environment play a role in supporting donations? What values drive donor behavior?
As you can tell from these seemingly simple questions, there are many variables that can influence the decision to donate or not to a cause. We're trying to figure some of them out, and if you want to learn more, we suggest these readings:
Social dilemma
Have you ever thought about what processes are involved in making everyday decisions? At the JDM LAB, we explore the “how” and “why” people make certain economic decisions in the field of behavioral economics. The focus is on the role of psychosocial, cognitive, emotional, and cultural factors in decision-making and how these decisions vary from classic economic theories, such as game theory. Game Theory , because it tries to understand the strategic actions of two or more "players" in a given situation containing set rules and outcomes. The outcomes for each participant or "player" depends on the actions of all. If you are a player in such a game, when choosing your course of action or "strategy" you must take into account the choices of others. . . The Prisoner's dilemma is a standard example of a game analyzed in game theory. It shows why two completely rational individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interests to do so.
Another game, called the Public Goods Game, is currently a research project in the JDM Lab. This study is exploring how the decision to punish (and the amount of punishment given to) non-cooperative members in a Public Goods Game is affected by the trait Emotional Intelligence of a person.
Medical decisions and vaccination hesitation
In the JDM Lab we study how people make decisions when their healthis at stake, from preventive choices (e.g., vaccinations), to tests to detect disease early (e.g., cancer screening), to tests to detect the risk of disease (e.g., genetic testing for BRCA), to treatment choices in which patient preferences play a key role (e.g., the trade-off between quantity and quality of life). Research in these domains aims to investigate the factors influencing these decisions, in order to support informed and shared decision making (when the decision is sensitive to individual preferences and/or there is no solid evidence on the superiority of an option, e.g. using tools such as patient decision aids)or informed adherence (when there is solid evidence of the efficacy and safety of an option and its superiority over others, e.g. using nudges). Recently, the JDM Lab has often investigated vaccination hesitancy, exploring the factors that contribute to vaccination attitudes and decisions , with particular attention to the role of risk perception and psychological antecedents, ranging from pediatric vaccinations to those in pregnancy and those against COVID-19.