The neuroeconomics initiative brings primarily economists, psychologists, and neuroscientists together to investigate the biological bases of economic decision-making. While classical economic theory posits individuals to be rational decision-makers with purely self-regarding preferences, mounting evidence supports the idea that people make “irrational” decisions in systematic ways, and that these decisions depend upon both perceived individual utility and processes involved in social cognition. A neuroeconomics perspective assumes that the ability to make economic judgments and decisions depends upon the integrated functioning of the nervous system.

Sister Labs:

Northwestern University (Jacqueline Gollan)

Dartmouth (Catherine Norris)

Michigan (K. Luan Phan)

Washington University (Marcus Raichle)

Beijing Normal University (Yuejia Luo)

Leader:Howard Nusbaum
Members: John List, John Cacioppo, Reid Hastie, James Heckman, Ali Hortacsu, Boaz Keysar, John Brehm, Joshua Correll, Emil Coccaro, Daniel Margoliash, Luigi Zingales, Steven Small, Howard Nusbaum, Harriet de Wit,
Recent News:
Luigi Zingales interviewed on PBS NewsHour
Women Less Interested Than Men In Jobs Where Individual Competition Determines Success
Men's Overconfidence Drives Gender Disparity at Work -Live Science-
Trust in Banks Falls Back to Financial Crisis Lows - DailyFinance
Is Sexting Cheating?
Be It Resolved - New York Times
In Public Education, It's the Family (Huff. Post)
Cutting Head Start is bad fiscal policy - CNN

Three Ways President Obama Can Fix the Housing Crisis - Brookings Institution
Booth/Kellogg Financial Trust Index Shows Complete Lack of It - Chicagomag.com
Chicago Heights Eighth Grade Students Take Class at University of Chicago - Patch.com
Rosenfield gift to foster studies drawing on economics, policy and law
Rosenfield gift to foster studies drawing on economics, policy and law

Attention and memory work at CCSN tends to focus on the importance of contextual factors as opposed to those rooted solely in the brain. For example, Howard Nusbaum focuses on the cognitive mechanisms underlying attention, working memory and learning as they are practiced in behavioral contexts, as well as the intersections of these mechanisms in language processing, while David Gallo studies whether processes occurring outside our conscious awareness can produce false memories.
Leader:David Gallo
Members: Eric Larson, Sian Beilock, David Gallo, Leslie Kay, Joshua Correll, Murray Sherman, Ana Solodkin, Alison Winter, Howard Nusbaum,
Recent News:

Research Initiative Update
Brain Aging: Whats Nintendo Got to Do With It? - TIME
A Peek Inside the Brain: What Do Neuroscientists Think About? - Huffington Post

Research increasingly indicates that we can no longer study language and language use separately, attempting to isolate linguistic from putatively non-linguistic processes such as motor activity, working memory, or attention. This shift away from identifying processes “in” the brain entails corresponding methodological shifts towards examining cortical activity during language behavior.

Sister Lab:

University of Trento, Italy (Alfonso Caramazza)

Leader:Howard Nusbaum
Members: Susan Goldin-Meadow, Susan Levine, Daniel Margoliash, Steven Small, Howard Nusbaum,
Recent News:
Research Initiative Update
Using words like big and small teaches infants spatial skills - Telegraph.co.uk
Talking About Size, Shape May Aid Math Skills - U.S. News & World Report


CCSN Member Profile- Susan Levine

Traditional views of cognitive psychology characterize the mind as an abstract information processor largely divorced from the body and the environment. However, more recent theories of embodied cognition suggest that our ability to represent objects, events, and other’s intentions is closely related to the sensorimotor systems that govern our own actions. This embodied viewpoint has roots in ecological psychology’s refutation of a distinction between perception and action and is being used as a theoretical tool to gain a better understanding of language processing, social interaction, learning in action-rich STEM domains (e.g., physics and chemistry), and communication, to name a few areas.

Sister Labs:

Utrecht University (Gün R. Semin)

Leader:Sian Beilock
Members: Sian Beilock, John Cacioppo, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Steven Small, Alison Winter, Howard Nusbaum,
Recent News:
Research Initiative Update
Students who wrote about anxiety over math test did better than others in study.
The Superstar Advantage - Wired News
Stress Management is the key to success for students - ww.mentalhealthy.co.uk
Seeing red brings quicker, stronger reaction - DigitalJournal.com
Headset to monitor brain activity - Independent Online
Study of the Day: How to Overcome Math Anxiety Before a Big Test -The Atlantic-

The Social Structures Initiative seeks to integrate broad social categorical information (e.g., demographic, socioeconomic, neighborhood, religious group membership) with psychological processes and physiological and health outcomes. Psychological repercussions deriving from the disruption of social roles, for example, may have long-term health consequences, as in the case of loss of social connection in the context of divorce, family trauma, or change in economic status. The goal of this initiative is to foster research into mechanisms through which social structures influence feelings of social connection and their emotional, cognitive, and behavioral sequelae, and conversely, mechanisms through which individual differences in feelings of social connection influence the organization and efficacy of social structures.

Sister Labs:

Rush University Medical Center (Carlos F. Mendes de Leon)

Harvard University (Nicholas Christakis)

University of California, San Diego (James Fowler)

Resources

:

HRS- The Health and Retirement Study

Leader:Louise Hawkley
Members: John Cacioppo, Kathleen Cagney, Lianne Kurina, Diane Lauderdale, Ariel Kalil, Dario Maestripieri, Christopher Masi, David Meltzer, Brian Prendergast, Ronald Thisted, Linda Waite, Louise Hawkley,
Recent News:
Research Initiative Update
U. of C. study finds that rats have a touch of humanity -Chicago Tribune-
When Granny is nanny: How to split up childcare duties with less stress - Washington Post
Teaching Empathy to the Me Generation - Miller-McCune.com
Lonely Planet
Abused Chicks Grow Up to Be Abusers - Science AAAS
Single Men Slip Further Behind Married in Cancer Survival - LiveScience.com
World population not only grows, but grows old - Washington Post
Love, lies and the science of online dating - Montreal Gazette

Studies of social intelligence investigate the ability to perceive one’s own and others’ internal states, motives, and behaviors and to act towards them optimally on the basis of that information. Research suggests that the quality of social intelligence is distinct from that of cognitive intelligence, and that they are supported by separate neural substrates.

Sister Labs:

Kansas (Batson)

University of Vienna (Bauer)

Ohio State University (Berntson)

National University Singapore (Bishop)

Free University Amsterdam (Boomsma)

UCLA (Cole)

Beijing University (Han)

Tohoku University (Kawashima)

National Yang Ming University (Lin)

National Center of Mental Health (Moriguchi)

UIC (Porges)

University of Freiburg (Scheidt)

University of Hong Kong (Tatia Lee)

Laboratorio de Neurosciencias Cognitivas (Agustin Ibanez)

Research Center for Innovative Oncology in Kashiwa, Japan (Yosuke Uchitomi)

Dartmouth College (Catherine Norris)

Northwestern University (Jacqueline Gollan)

University of California – Davis (John Capitanio)

Leader:John Cacioppo
Members: John Cacioppo, Ben Lahey, Joshua Correll, Jean Decety, Bernd Wittenbrink, Gary Berntson, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Howard Nusbaum, Louise Hawkley,
Recent News:
Stephanie Ortigue, Syracuse University (Event)
Why Loneliness Is Hazardous to Your Health
The Vocabulary: Facebook- Success Magazine
Research Initiative Update
Rats to the Rescue - New York Times
The Seculsion Illusion - The Age
Loneliness is Deadly; Guard your Heart
Scientists demonstrate empathy in rats - WBEZ
The Many Fields of Neuroscience: Shifting from Synapses to Society - Science Careers
Couples communicate no better than strangers - IBNLive.com
Ancient Dancing Outbreak Believed to Be a Case of Social Contagion - ABC News
Project Will Study the Neural Basis of Psychopathy
Project Will Study the Neural Basis of Psychopathy
Dogs, Empathy, and Neurobiology - Chicagomag.com
Moms Talk: Can Facebook Sometimes be Fake Book? - Patch.com
Lonely Planet
Are you lonesome tonight? It could affect your sleep - Globe and Mail
Affiliate Lab Interview- Tatia Lee
Loneliness linked to fitful sleep in U. of C. study - Chicago Tribune