What happens in the brain when we make decisions?

At the neuroeconomics booth, you’ll be tempted to play games. That’s because neuroeconomics uses short game scenarios to investigate the brain mechanisms at work in the brain when we make decisions. Our field of research is interdisciplinary, bridging psychology, neuroscience, and economics. At Scientifica, you can try out these short interactive economic games for yourself and learn about this complex science in an interactive way that’s accessible to visitors of all ages, from children to older adults. By playing these games, participants gain an understanding of how everyday decisions are studied in controlled laboratory experiments.

The games typically pose decision dilemmas in which participants must trade off one property (money) against others (time, risk, effort). People often act shortsightedly in such decisions and commit “reasoning errors” that can be exploited by other visitors.

Take for example our Economic Rationality Task: if you prefer A over B, B over C, but then C over A, your preferences form a loop. That tiny slip triggers something economists call a “money pump” these cyclic preferences can be exploited again and again, costing you a little money or effort each time around. And we have more games to explore.

In addition, we showcase neuroscientific equipment in action, such as eye-tracking devices, transcranial electric stimulation (tES), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and electroencephalography (EEG) that we use in our research. This allows visitors to see how the brain enables decision-making.

Overall, we’re looking forward to discussions with you, using your own results as a starting point to explore insights from neuroeconomic research.

Further information:
University Registration Center for Study Participants