Jonathan Baron
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Baron is a Professor of Psychology
at the University of Pennsylvania
in the science of decision-making.
, Massachusetts
, in 1944, and received a B.A. from Harvard in 1966 and a Ph.D. from Michigan in 1970, both in psychology. He married Judith Baron in 1967, and has one son, David, born in 1980.
Baron is the founding editor of the journal Judgment and Decision Making and has been on the editorial boards of several other journals.
He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
and of the Association for Psychological Science
, and was the President of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making
for 2006-2007.
and decision making
, a multi-disciplinary area that applies psychology
to problems in economics
, law
, business
, and public policy
. This field began by contrasting human decision behavior to theories of individual decision making and judgment such as probability theory
and expected utility. Baron's research has extended the focus of judgment and decision making to social problems of resource allocation and ethical decisions. Among the concepts associated with his work are omission bias
(the tendency for people to excuse acts of omission more easily than acts of commission) and protected values
(principles on which people are unwilling to accept tradeoffs).
Baron is author of Thinking and Deciding, a text that takes on the task of examining psychological research directed at a comprehension of the nature of thinking as he sees it. In this text, Baron covers such topics as risk
, bioethics
, Bayes' Theorem
, utility measurement, decision analysis, and values. The text takes a broad-based, introductory-level view to the field of psychological decision theory, and has seen use as a textbook, both for Baron's own introductory course and for courses in decision theory at other universities.
He has also authored Morality and Rational Choice, Against Bioethics, and Judgment Misguided. Additionally, he is the editor of Teaching Decision Making to Adolescents and Psychological Perspectives on Justice (with Barbara Mellers).
Baron's Ph.D. students have included Jane Beattie and Jonathan Haidt
.
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in the science of decision-making.
Life and career
Baron was born in BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, in 1944, and received a B.A. from Harvard in 1966 and a Ph.D. from Michigan in 1970, both in psychology. He married Judith Baron in 1967, and has one son, David, born in 1980.
Baron is the founding editor of the journal Judgment and Decision Making and has been on the editorial boards of several other journals.
He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
and of the Association for Psychological Science
Association for Psychological Science
The Association for Psychological Science , previously the American Psychological Society, is a non-profit international organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in research, application, teaching, and the improvement of...
, and was the President of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making
Society for Judgment and Decision Making
The Society for Judgment and Decision Making is an interdisciplinary academic organization dedicated to the study of normative, descriptive, and prescriptive theories of decision. Its members include psychologists, economists, organizational researchers, decision analysts, and other decision...
for 2006-2007.
Notable contributions
Baron's work has occurred primarily within the field of judgmentJudgment
A judgment , in a legal context, is synonymous with the formal decision made by a court following a lawsuit. At the same time the court may also make a range of court orders, such as imposing a sentence upon a guilty defendant in a criminal matter, or providing a remedy for the plaintiff in a civil...
and decision making
Decision making
Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.- Overview :Human performance in decision terms...
, a multi-disciplinary area that applies psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
to problems in economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
, business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
, and public policy
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
. This field began by contrasting human decision behavior to theories of individual decision making and judgment such as probability theory
Probability theory
Probability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with analysis of random phenomena. The central objects of probability theory are random variables, stochastic processes, and events: mathematical abstractions of non-deterministic events or measured quantities that may either be single...
and expected utility. Baron's research has extended the focus of judgment and decision making to social problems of resource allocation and ethical decisions. Among the concepts associated with his work are omission bias
Omission bias
The omission bias is an alleged type of cognitive bias. It is the tendency to judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral than equally harmful omissions . It is contentious as to whether this represents a systematic error in thinking, or is supported by a substantive moral theory...
(the tendency for people to excuse acts of omission more easily than acts of commission) and protected values
Protected Values
Protected values are values that people are unwilling to trade off no matter what the benefits of doing so may be. For example, some people may be unwilling to kill any one person, even if it means saving many others...
(principles on which people are unwilling to accept tradeoffs).
Baron is author of Thinking and Deciding, a text that takes on the task of examining psychological research directed at a comprehension of the nature of thinking as he sees it. In this text, Baron covers such topics as risk
Risk
Risk is the potential that a chosen action or activity will lead to a loss . The notion implies that a choice having an influence on the outcome exists . Potential losses themselves may also be called "risks"...
, bioethics
Bioethics
Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy....
, Bayes' Theorem
Bayes' theorem
In probability theory and applications, Bayes' theorem relates the conditional probabilities P and P. It is commonly used in science and engineering. The theorem is named for Thomas Bayes ....
, utility measurement, decision analysis, and values. The text takes a broad-based, introductory-level view to the field of psychological decision theory, and has seen use as a textbook, both for Baron's own introductory course and for courses in decision theory at other universities.
He has also authored Morality and Rational Choice, Against Bioethics, and Judgment Misguided. Additionally, he is the editor of Teaching Decision Making to Adolescents and Psychological Perspectives on Justice (with Barbara Mellers).
Baron's Ph.D. students have included Jane Beattie and Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on the psychological bases of morality across different cultures and political ideology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He was awarded the Templeton Prize in Positive...
.