The course contributes to the achievement of the educational objectives of the Course of Studies in Economics and Behavioral Sciences by providing the knowledge and skills of psychosocial and socio-cognitive sciences aimed at training experts in behavioral sciences for marketing interventions, policy design and control to promote public welfare, and enhancement of human resources.
After offering a broad overview of the historical developments of tools and strategies of collective influence, the course aims at the synergistic capitalization of the contributions of neuroscience, cognitive psychology and decision making, and social psychology in order to strengthen classical tools and refine innovative tools that aim to influence human attitudes and behaviors in an effective, stable and beneficial way.
During the course both methodological and ethical issues associated with the use of these tools will be explored and the advantages and disadvantages of interpersonal, organizational and collective influence processes will be discussed, deepening the integrative potential between nudging and boosting aimed at personal and social empowerment. With a wide use of case histories and examples, interventions of influence on different social scales, with different methodologies, with different investments and with different results will be illustrated.
The student will know the fundamental mechanisms underlying the processes of decision making, influence and persuasion.
The student will be able to recognize the environmental, social, communicative and cognitive components that guide the behaviour of individuals and groups.
The student will be able to distinguish the processes of influence that aim to give power to objectives from those that create dependence and loss of power.
At the end of the course the student will be able to plan a nudging intervention in different contexts, using different methodologies and knowing how to measure both direct and proximal as well as indirect and distal effects.
The main contents will concern:
System 1 and 2 in the processes of decision and persuasion
Heuristics and persuasive levers
The fundamental principles of persuasion
The fundamentals of decision-making processes
The psychological models of the decision
Bias and heuristics in the decision
Ethical issues of influence and persuasion
The freedom to be influenced
Sociocognitive processes and influence
The impact of narrative persuasion
Imagery and persuasive processes
Emotional processes in influenza
Influence as the architecture of choice
The role of feedback and incentives
The impact of social leverage
Laziness and fear in directing choices
Influence and social welfare
From nudging to boosting
