You will gain familiarity with the main concept of social psychology and learn to identify how social psychological concepts impact individual and group decision making processes. Furthermore you will learn to apply psychological decision making theory to a practical problem.

This course will extend the previous course on cognitive psychology by placing the cognitive and affective processes that are important for decision-making in an interpersonal context. We will start by investigating the contextual factors such as cooperation, fairness, and group processes. Next, we will discuss how social decision-making takes place in the context of morality, social comparisons, and is subject to stereotyping and prejudice. Throughout the course students are encouraged to connect the theory to practical examples from our everyday lives; ranging from their own experiences with their friends – for example in hazing rites, advertisements on TV – for example how celebrities can make or break a brand, to political examples such as global warming. The different components of this course are designed to help students gain insights into social psychological theories, the specific research designs that are used to test these, and the application of these theories in our daily lives. Overall, this course should raise students' awareness of the extent to which all our decisions are context-dependent, and influenced by the (imagined) presence of other people. For this reason, it is important to understand the impact of the social context in order to improve decision-making to reach optimal outcomes for individuals, organizations, and society.

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