GOR 15 Panel discussion: Behavioural Economics: A new idea of man – a need for new methods?

Thursday 19/Mar/2015: 14.00 – 15.30

New research in the fields of behavioural sciences and neurosciences have changed the view of human action and thinking. The works of Kahneman, Tversky and many other researchers have shown that our decisions are to a much lesser degree made consciously than we thought and are very much shaped by automatisms and situational influences.

Particularly our self-perception is not realistic: we are not really in a position to predict our behaviour. And memories of past behaviour and its sources are systematically distorted.

In economics this research has led to the establishment of a new discipline: behavioural economics. Also many market and social researchers are demanding new thinking and methods in their discipline. The key question is in how far verbal surveys can at all provide valid data on decision-making processes if respondents are not (or at least not completely) conscious of it. Do we need to reinterpret methods of empirical social sciences or even have to come up with completely new methods? Will new research designs, the use of gamification or implicit measurement be able to function as a bridge between human thinking and action or will we need to employ methods of neurosciences? Does this shift in methodology signify the real revolution in market research instead of questioning methods of data collection and de-anonymisation? Or is it a discussion of old issues which qualitative and psychological market researchers have addressed and solved already a long time ago?

These issues will be discussed by a group of experts in the field:

  • Dr. Florian Bauer, CEO Vocatus AG, Germany, and author of the book „Der unvernünftige Kunde: Mit Behavioural Economics irrationale Entscheidungen verstehen und beeinflussen“
  • Professor Dirk Frank, Managing Director ISM Global Dynamics GmbH and Professor at Hochschule Pforzheim, Germany
  • Jon Puleston, VP Innovation, Lightspeed GMI, United Kingdom
  • Orlando Wood, Managing Director, Brainjuicer Labs, United Kingdom
  • Moderation: Professor Horst Müller-Peters, Editor of marktforschung.de
Posted in GOR 15, News

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