MG455      Half Unit
Decisions, Biases and Nudges

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

It is an advantage to have had an introductory social science course in one of these fields: economics, management, psychology or sociology.

It is important to be comfortable with multi-disciplinary research, frequent in-class quizzes and teamwork. 

This course introduces students to Behavioural Decision Science: the science that explains and predicts how humans make decisions (the decision ‘process’) and how well (the decision ‘outcome’). The course will focus on decision processes, and unveil the subtle and sometimes unconscious influences played by our mind (biases) and the context in which decisions are faced: What has been chosen in the past? Is there risk and uncertainty? All of these (and more) are factors that often determine how information is searched before choosing, how decisions are made, and the quality of the decision made.

In the theoretical part of the course, you will be guided to the scientific language of decisions, judgments and biases, and learn theoretical concepts from in-class experiments. In the applied part of the course, you will work as a team and use the Decision Canvas, a novel framework that I created with Dr Umar Taj to break down the steps of a decision process, You will practice how to spot biases and mitigate them  applying different techniques – from ‘debiasing’ to ‘choice architecture.

The course is entirely seminar-based and balances theory, experiments and applications. We will alternate teaching with interactive activities designed to observe and feel the process of decision making from the ‘inside’, before reviewing behavioural decision theories and evidence from lab and field studies. Students will be able to apply the decision making skills acquired across different sectors and domains (e.g., managerial, policy, health, consumer).

The assessment is designed to give students the opportunity to work as a team and apply their new skills to support a real decision, as well as produce, individually, a rigorous and original analysis of how an important strategic could be improved by a technique of their choosing - from those reviewed in the course.

24.5 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

In its Ethics Code, LSE upholds a commitment to intellectual freedom. This means we will protect the freedom of expression of our students and staff and the right to engage in healthy debate in the classroom.

1. Team submission of mid-term progress on Decision Canvas (Team project) (week 5). Over several weeks (both in and outside class), you will work as a team to analyse a real decision that you will select. Students will submit progress on the work that they have done as a team.  After reading week you will receive feedback as a team. This feedback will help you prepare for the summative team project submission. 

2. Mini team presentation. Each team will present to the rest of the class their decision in week 3-4. This exercise will help you present your team project in week 10. 

• Fasolo, B., Heard, C.H., & Scopelliti I. Mitigating Cognitive Bias to Improve Organizational Decisions: An Integrative Review, Framework, And Research Agenda. Journal of Management, https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063241287188;
• Krpan, D., Fasolo, B., and Schneider, L. (2025). A call for precision in the study of behaviour and decision. Nature Human Behaviour, Vol. pp. 1-4. DOI: 10.1038/s41562-025-02111-x; 
• Bazerman, M. (2017) Judgment in Managerial Decision Making. New York: Wiley. 8th edition; 
• Kahneman, D. (2011) Thinking Fast and Slow. London: Allen Lane; 
• Russo, J. E. & Schoemaker, P. J. H. (2002) Winning decisions: How to make the right decision the first time, Piatkus Publ. Limited.

Course participation (10%)

Presentation (5%)

This component of assessment includes an element of group work.

Project (30%)

This component of assessment includes an element of group work.

Critical evaluation (55%, 2000 words)

Team Presentation (5%) and Team Project (30%) due in week 10. Over several weeks (both in and outside class), you will work as a team to analyse a real decision that you will select. In Week 10, teams submit their project on Moodle and give a short, timed presentation of the decision, the bias and bias mitigation interventions recommended for the decision problem investigated with the ‘Decision Canvas’ 

Individual Bias Analysis & Mitigation (55% 2000 words) (due beginning of ST): In the Analysis (no more than 2,000 words) you will apply one of the bias mitigation techniques learned in the course (e.g., a de-biasing or choice architecture technique) to mitigate a bias you spot in a real world decision. This is done in a scholarly and rigorous manner. You will be required to provide full essay-style referencing. 

Participation (10%), Every week, you will participate in online quizzes and in-class activities that allow you to experience how decisions and biases unfold.  

For detailed assessment information, including all deadlines and timings, please see the relevant course Moodle page. Assessment timings will be available at the start of each term.

PDAM skills

• self-management
• team working
• problem solving
• application of information skills
• communication