BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES WORKSHOP: Judd Kessler (UPenn), “Thinking Fast and Slow: Generosity Over Time”

Is prosocial behavior instinctive or a result of reasoned deliberation? In this project, we bring a new experimental method to the ongoing debate on this topic in order to more accurately observe both intuitive and deliberate choices. We find that rather than being intuitively selfish or intuitively generous, individuals become more selfish or more generous over time as a function of their opportunities for generosity. In particular, subjects in our experiment become either more or less generous over time depending on the efficiency of the generous act available to them. This result suggests that dual-self models with strict predictions that individuals become more selfish or more generous over time may not be appropriate for explaining generosity, and previous results in support of such strict prediction may be artifacts of the their experimental designs. Similarly, theories that suggest that choices do not change over time also fail to explain our data.

Judd Kessler received a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University in 2004, an M.Phil. in Economics from Cambridge University in 2005, and a Ph.D. in Business Economics from Harvard University in 2011.

In his research, Judd uses a combination of laboratory and field experiments to answer questions in Public Economics and Market Design. He investigates the economic and psychological forces that motivate individuals to contribute to public goods inside and outside the workplace, with applications including organ donation, worker effort, and charitable giving. He also investigates market design innovations, placing particular emphasis on bringing market design from theory to practice, with applications including course allocation and priority systems for organ allocation.

The Behavioral Sciences Workshop is an interdisciplinary seminar series held jointly between the Yale departments of Economics, Political Science, Psychology, and the School of Management. Lunch will be served.