George Loewenstein
| George Loewenstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 9, 1955 |
| Nationality | American |
| Institution | Carnegie Mellon University |
| Field |
Behavioral economics Neuroeconomics |
| Alma mater |
Yale University (Ph.D. 1985) Brandeis University (B.A. 1977) |
| Influences | Richard Thaler |
| Contributions | Intertemporal choice |
| Information at IDEAS / RePEc | |
George Freud Loewenstein (born August 9, 1955) is an American educator and economist. He is the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Economics and Psychology in the Social and Decision Sciences Department at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the Center for Behavioral Decision Research. He is a leader in the fields of behavioral economics (which he is also credited with co-founding) and neuroeconomics.
He received his B.A. in economics magna cum laude from Brandeis University in 1977 and Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1985 with thesis titled Expectations and Intertemporal Choice. He taught at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago before taking up his present position at Carnegie Mellon University. Loewenstein became a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.
Loewenstein is especially known for his work regarding intertemporal choice and affective forecasting.
Hot-cold empathy gaps are one of Loewenstein's major contributions to behavioral economics. The crux of this idea is that human understanding is "state dependent," that is, when one is angry it is difficult to understand what it is like for one to be happy, and vice versa. The implications of this were explored in the realm of sexual decision-making, where young men in an unaroused "cold state" fail to predict that when they are in an aroused "hot state" they will be more likely to make risky sexual decisions, such as not using a condom.
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