BMET 25A17 - Behavioral methods

With the raise of behavioral sciences, social sciences have gained new tools for studying human behavior and social dynamics. In particular, experimental psychology and cognitive sciences have developed new measures for understanding human behavior and its underlying mechanisms. The goal of this class is to introduce tools from behavioral sciences for studying human behavior so students will be able to understand, evaluate and design behavioral experiments by themselves. By the end of the course the students should be able to: 1. Be autonomous in finding and critically reading scientific articles in behavioral sciences and 2. Be able to design a behavioral experiment for measuring political behavior.

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This practical course will introduce classical and more recent experimental designs to study individual behavior and social dynamics, with an emphasis on their specificities and limits. Each class will include group discussions, oral presentations and a research project that will allow to ensure the acquisition of the key methods from behavioral sciences by all the students. The first hour will present key concepts of behavioral experiments with associated group work. During the second hour, students will work in team on their research projects. The exact topic of the research projects will be defined by the students themselves at the beginning of the semester.

30% homework (300 words summary of a scientific article, 3 times in the semester), 20% in-class exercises, 50% research project (in group). The research project should include a short bibliography, three experimental protocols and the associated expected results.