Ralph Hertwig

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Ralph Hertwig, 2019

Ralph Hertwig (born November 4, 1963 in Heilbronn ) is a German psychologist who primarily deals with the psychology of human decision-making. Hertwig is director of the Adaptive Rationality research area at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. He grew up with his brothers Steffen Hertwig and Michael Hertwig with his parents Walter and Inge Hertwig in Talheim .

Professional career

After completing his doctorate in 1995 at the University of Konstanz , Hertwig started at Gerd Gigerenzer's research department at the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research in Munich; In 1997 the group switched to the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. From 2000 to 2003 Hertwig carried out research at Columbia University with the support of the German Research Foundation . After his habilitation in 2003 at the Free University of Berlin , Hertwig became assistant professor for applied cognitive science at the University of Basel (Switzerland) that same year . In 2005 he was appointed full professor of cognitive science and decision psychology at the same institute. In 2012, Hertwig returned to Berlin as Director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Research Area Adaptive Rationality.

research

Limited rationality

Hertwig has made key contributions to the exploration of limited rationality, i.e. to answering the question of how people search for information and make decisions on the basis of limited resources. He examines how decisions can be explained in the form of quick and simple heuristics - simple cognitive strategies that get by with little information and processing steps. Among other things, he deals with heuristics for use in inferences (e.g. fluency heuristic), in selection decisions (e.g. priority heuristic, natural mean heuristic), in the distribution of parental attention (e.g. equity heuristic), in medical decisions (e.g. first impression heuristic) and in strategic decisions. How rational, i.e. how useful or successful a heuristic is, depends on whether it corresponds to the structure of the environment in which it is used. The term ecological - in contrast to logical - rationality calls into question a basic assumption of the “Heuristics-and-Bias-Program”: namely that successful decision-making processes must correspond to the formal principles of logic, probability theory and the theory of rational decision-making, regardless of the decision context . Instead, Hertwig considers which context-specific aspects could play a role in the violation of these principles. Another reason that simple heuristics can lead to good decisions is that they take advantage of the complex cognitive abilities of the human mind that have evolved over time. Together with Lael Schooler, Hertwig has shown that ecologically intelligent forgetting - the ability to forget information that is probably no longer needed - promotes the success of heuristics based on partial ignorance (e.g. the recognition heuristic, fluency heuristic).

Descriptive versus experience-based decisions

In principle, people can find out about the possible consequences of their decisions and their probability of occurrence in two ways: either by obtaining probability information (e.g. medication package insert) or by personally experiencing the consequences of individual decisions (e.g. when looking for a partner) . Hertwig and his team let study participants play games of chance and observed a “description – experience gap”: In the case of description-based decisions, too much weight is attached to rare events, but too little in the case of decisions based on personal experience. One of the reasons for this is that decisions based on personal experience are based on small samples. It is simply less likely that rare occurrences will occur in your own experience. The description-experience gap appears in many decisions and has been observed in adolescents beyond monetary gambling in areas such as causal inferences, consumer behavior, investment decisions, medical decisions and risk taking.

Wanted ignorance

It is not uncommon for people to consciously choose not to know something. Up to 55% of those who are tested for HIV do not ask about the test result. This conscious decision not to obtain or process information is known as “willful ignorance”. In a joint article, Hertwig and Christoph Engel argue that willful ignorance is not necessarily an anomaly, but can fulfill important functions. One such is the control of emotions: people consciously ignore information about health risks, because it could call cherished beliefs into question, trigger mental discomfort or destroy hopes. In addition, Hertwig and Engels are editors of an interdisciplinary book in which different forms of willful ignorance are examined, from the right to refuse genetic testing to collective amnesia in societal transformation processes; from anonymous orchestral auditions to the development of non-discriminatory algorithms.

Boosting

So far, public policy interventions based on behavioral findings have mostly been so-called “nudges”. This is about targeted exertion of influence that dispenses with financial incentives or restrictive requirements and does not question the fundamental freedom of choice. Hertwig's approach, on the other hand, focuses on so-called “boosts”, another type of political intervention that also dispenses with financial incentives and regulatory measures. Boosts aim to improve people's decision-making skills, cognitive abilities and self-motivation, thereby making them capable of acting. Instead of just conveying information, boosts offer simple and sustainable strategies to solve a specific task. For example, there is a boost that has been proven to improve the quality of relationships. It consists in putting yourself in the shoes of a neutral observer during an argument and consolidating this change of perspective through short writing exercises. In a joint article, Hertwig and Till Gruene-Yanoff explain how boosts differ from nudges on the one hand in terms of the underlying psychological mechanism and on the other hand in terms of the respective normative implications for transparency and autonomy. While nudges tend to undermine conscious deliberation and therefore harbor the risk of manipulation, boosts rely on the active cooperation of the individual and must therefore necessarily be conveyed openly and transparently. In other publications, Hertwig deals with questions such as: When are boosts more suitable than nudges? How can a healthy diet be “boosted”? In what form should statistical information be conveyed in order to improve risk literacy? How can one improve medical diagnosis decisions with the help of collective intelligence?

Publications (selection)

Articles in scientific newspapers

Books

  • Gigerenzer, G., Hertwig, R., & Pachur, T. (Eds.). (2011). Heuristics: The Foundations of Adaptive Behavior . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
  • Hertwig, R., & Engel, C. (Eds.) (2020). Deliberate ignorance: Choosing not to know . Strüngmann Forum Reports. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Hertwig, R., Hoffrage, U., & the ABC Research Group (2013). Simple heuristics in a social world . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  • Hertwig, R., Pleskac, TJ, Pachur, T., & The Center for Adaptive Rationality (2019). Taming uncertainty . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Prizes and awards

  • Heinz Heckhausen Awards for Young Scientists (1996)
  • Charlotte and Karl Bühler Prize (2006)
  • Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (elected in 2010)
  • Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (appointed 2011)
  • Member of the Wilhelm Wundt Society (elected in 2012)
  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (2017), Germany's most important science award , for his groundbreaking research in the field of decision psychology

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Center for Adaptive Rationality . Retrieved September 9, 2019.
  2. Ralph Hertwig, Stefan M. Herzog, Lael J. Schooler, Torsten Reimer: Fluency heuristic: A model of how the mind exploits a by-product of information retrieval . In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition . 34, No. 5, 2008, pp. 1191-1206. doi : 10.1037 / a0013025 . PMID 18763900 .
  3. ^ Eduard Brandstätter, Gerd Gigerenzer, Ralph Hertwig: The priority heuristic: Making choices without trade-offs . In: Psychological Review . 113, No. 2, 2006, pp. 409-432. doi : 10.1037 / 0033-295x.113.2.409 . PMID 16637767 . PMC 2891015 (free full text).
  4. ^ Ralph Hertwig, Timothy J. Pleskac: Decisions from experience: Why small samples? . In: Cognition . 115, No. 2, 2010, pp. 225-237. doi : 10.1016 / j.cognition.2009.12.009 . PMID 20092816 .
  5. Ralph Hertwig, Jennifer Nerissa Davis, Frank J. Sulloway: Parental investment: How an equity motive can produce inequality . In: Psychological Bulletin . 128, No. 5, 2002, pp. 728-745. doi : 10.1037 / 0033-2909.128.5.728 .
  6. Bettina Beglinger, Martin Rohacek, Selina Ackermann, Ralph Hertwig, Julia Karakoumis-Ilsemann, Susanne Boutellier, Nicolas Geigy, Christian Nickel, Roland Bingisser: Physicianʼs First Clinical Impression of Emergency Department Patients with Nonspecific Complaints is Associated with Morbidity and Mortality . In: Medicine . 94, No. 7, 2015, p. E374. doi : 10.1097 / MD.0000000000000374 .
  7. Leonidas Spiliopoulos, Ralph. Hertwig: A map of ecologically rational heuristics for uncertain strategic worlds . In: Psychological Review . 127, No. 2, 2020, pp. 245-280. doi : 10.1037 / rev0000171 .
  8. ^ Ralph Hertwig, Stefan M. Herzog: Fast and Frugal Heuristics: Tools of Social Rationality . In: Social Cognition . 27, No. 5, 2009, pp. 661-698. doi : 10.1521 / soco.2009.27.5.661 .
  9. Lael Schooler . Retrieved September 9, 2019.
  10. ^ Lael J. Schooler, Ralph Hertwig: How forgetting aids heuristic inference . In: Psychological Review . 112, No. 3, 2005, pp. 610-628. doi : 10.1037 / 0033-295X.112.3.610 .
  11. ^ Ralph Hertwig, Greg Barron, Elke U. Weber , Ido Erev: Decisions from Experience and the Effect of Rare Events in Risky Choice . In: Psychological Science . 15, No. 8, 2004, pp. 534-539. doi : 10.1111 / j.0956-7976.2004.00715.x . PMID 15270998 .
  12. Dirk U. Wulff, Max Mergenthaler-Canseco, Ralph Hertwig: A meta-analytic review of two modes of learning and the description-experience gap . In: Psychological Bulletin . 144, No. 2, 2018, pp. 140–176. doi : 10.1037 / bul0000115 . PMID 29239630 .
  13. Junyi Dai, Thorsten Pachur, Timothy J. Pleskac, Ralph Hertwig: What the Future Holds and When: A Description – Experience Gap in Intertemporal Choice . In: Psychological Science . 30, No. 8, 2019, pp. 1218-1233. doi : 10.1177 / 0956797619858969 . PMID 31318637 .
  14. Lisa B. Hightow, William C. Miller, Peter A. Leone, David Wohl, Marlene Smurzynski, Andrew H. Kaplan: Failure to Return for HIV Posttest Counseling in an STD Clinic Population . In: AIDS Education and Prevention . 15, No. 3, 2003, pp. 282-290. doi : 10.1521 / aeap.15.4.282.23826 . PMID 12866839 .
  15. Christoph Engel . Retrieved September 9, 2019.
  16. Ralph Hertwig, Christoph Engel: Homo Ignorans . In: Perspectives on Psychological Science . 11, No. 3, 2016, pp. 359–372. doi : 10.1177 / 1745691616635594 . PMID 27217249 .
  17. Hertwig, R., & Engel, C. (Eds.) (In press). Deliberate ignorance: Choosing not to know . Strüngmann Forum Reports. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  18. ^ Thaler, R., & Sunstein, CR (2008). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness . New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
  19. Eli J. Finkel, Erica B. Slotter, Laura B. Luchies, Gregory M. Walton, James J. Gross: A Brief Intervention to Promote Conflict Reappraisal Preserves Marital Quality over Time . In: Psychological Science . 24, No. 8, 2013, pp. 1595-1601. doi : 10.1177 / 0956797612474938 . PMID 23804960 .
  20. Till Grune-Yanoff . Retrieved September 9, 2019.
  21. Ralph Hertwig, Till Grüne-Yanoff: Nudging and Boosting: Steering or Empowering Good Decisions . In: Perspectives on Psychological Science . 12, No. 6, 2017, pp. 973-986. doi : 10.1177 / 1745691617702496 . PMID 28792862 .
  22. Ralph Hertwig: When to consider boosting: Some rules for policy-makers . In: Behavioral Public Policy . 1, No. 2, 2017, pp. 143–161. doi : 10.1017 / bpp.2016.14 .
  23. ^ M. Dallacker, R. Hertwig, J. Mata: The frequency of family meals and nutritional health in children: A meta-analysis . In: Obesity Reviews . 19, No. 5, 2018, pp. 638–653. doi : 10.1111 / obr.12659 . PMID 29334693 .
  24. ^ U. Hoffrage, S. Lindsey, R. Hertwig, G. Gigerenzer: MEDICINE: Communicating Statistical Information . In: Science . 290, No. 5500, 2000, pp. 2261-2262. doi : 10.1126 / science.290.5500.2261 . PMID 11188724 .
  25. Ralf HJM Kurvers, Stefan M. Herzog, Ralph Hertwig, Jens Krause, Patricia A. Carney, Andy Bogart, Giuseppe Argenziano, Iris Zalaudek, Max Wolf: Boosting medical diagnostics by pooling independent judgments . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 113, No. 31, 2016, pp. 8777-8782. doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1601827113 . PMID 27432950 .
  26. DGPs: earlier years . Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  27. DGPs: Laudation Prof. Dr. Ralph Hertwig . Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  28. ^ List of Members . Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  29. ^ A Conversation with Ralph Hertwig . Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  30. Wilhelm Wundt Society - Members area . Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  31. DFG, German Research Foundation - Prof. Dr. Ralph Hertwig . Retrieved July 23, 2019.