Please join us for the next Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine seminar in conjunction with the Decision Consortium, scheduled for September 20, 2012, at 3-4:30 pm, 4448 East Hall (Main Campus, corner of S. University Ave & Church St.). Ellen Peters, PhD, will present a talk entitled, “Informed choice and the construction of preferences.”

Abstract: Having consumers and patients actively involved in making informed choices is good. However, the effects of increased patient involvement are not well understood. Because preferences are sometimes constructed, unintended consequences can ensue. I will briefly discuss what is needed to make an informed decision and some of the barriers that exist to effective communication of critical information. Understanding the psychological mechanisms that underlie how people understand and use information is key to developing general principles concerning how to improve decision making.

Dr. Ellen Peters is Associate Professor of Psychology at Ohio State University and studies decision making as an interaction of characteristics of the decision situation and characteristics of the individual. She focuses on how affective, intuitive, and deliberative processes help people to make decisions in an increasingly complex world. She has three major strands of research. First, her research interests in decision making include number processing and the study of individual differences in numeracy and an intuitive sense of numbers. A second central strand of research concerns how affect and emotion influence information processing and decisions. Third, she is interested in how information processing and decision making change in complex ways across the adult life span. She is also generally interested in issues of risk perception and risk communication in health, financial, and environmental contexts, including how to present information to facilitate its comprehension and use.

Light refreshments will be provided. We hope to see you there!