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Q

&A

Evolutionarily speaking, the focus for Homo sapiens is on

the here and now. Describe how the focus of Homo Eco-

nomicus differs.

As the name implies, Homo Economicus is an invention of

economists. The assumption is that, as information proces-

sors and decision-makers, human beings are rational: We

base our decisions on evidence; we evaluate risk and time

in appropriate ways; and we combine all inputs in rational

ways. The problem with that framework—which is certainly

something to aspire to — is that human beings simply don’t

work that way, at least most of the time.

Because of the way we evolved, we had to make deci-

sions in a timely fashion in order to survive to see tomorrow;

and the result is a focus on the here and now. The problem

is, early in our evolution, we were avoiding threats like

predators on a daily basis; but today, the threats we face are

things like climate change. These are very different kinds of

threats, and an approach that served us well in the past does

not serve us quite so well now.

In a world where we make choices every day, why is it so

important which option we consider first?

In my time at Columbia, I worked for many years with my

colleague Eric Johnson on Query Theory, a framework that

explains how people actually make decisions across differ-

ent contexts. One key thing we found is, because humans

A professor who has

made it her life’s work

to understand how we

make decisions shares

some of her key findings.

Interview by Karen Christensen

QUESTIONS FOR Elke Weber, Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton University