How we make Decisions

Last week, I caught a re-run of a BBC Horizon programme entitled 'How You Really Make Decisions', which remains available to watch on the BBC iPlayer as well as being accessed from the Youtube link below.

If you haven't seen it before and are looking to show your students something that introduces Behavioural Economics then it is a fascinating programme. It tells the story of how behavioural economics was charted by Professor Daniel Kahneman and discusses some of the experiments that were conducted to illustrate how people behave irrationally, particularly when making decisions involving money.

The show illustrates the difference between Kahneman's system 1 method of decision making (instant and with little consideration) and system 2 method (more considered but not necessarily rational).

This may make a nice homework or flipped lesson resource or you may wish to show your current Year 1 A Level students in preparation for studying Behavioural Economics, partciularly if you are covering the AQA specification.