Adam Smith Business School

Professor Nicholas Hanley, University of Glasgow

The effects of emotions and personality on economic choices
Wednesday, 8 February, 3 pm-4:15 pm
Lecture Theatre 206. Main Building

Abstract

Nicholas Hanley will present three pieces of work which investigate the role of emotions and personality as determinants of preference heterogeneity. Finding better explanations of why people vary in their preferences for environmental goods has been a key research interest for many years. Here, they draw on insights from behavioural science to enrich this area of enquiry. The first 2 papers focus on emotions, and in particular on incidental emotions. Standard economic theory admits no role for such emotions in determining our choices. Yet, a wide range of evidence from behavioural science suggests such a link exists in a wide range of choice situations. Using a stated preference experiment implemented in the lab, they test the causal effects of different emotions on choices for environmental good. Their first set of results suggested no such effect exists, contrary to findings in other choice environments. They re-run the experiment, using a better way of recording emotional conditions, but again find no causal effects of emotions on choices. In the third paper, they use the same stated choice method to investigate an alternative behavioural phenomenon, namely personality type. Again, a large literature in behavioural science finds that personality type can help explain choices in a range of settings and, indeed, can help explain the effects of GDP growth on well-being. They develop a set of hypotheses for how specific personality types might affect preferences towards the status quo and towards costs for (changes in) three different environmental goods. They then test these hypotheses using three separate data sets. They find some evidence to support the claim that personality, as a stable characteristic of individuals, can help explain preference heterogeneity for environmental goods.

Bio

Nick Hanley is a professor of environmental and One Health Economics at the University of Glasgow, within the School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine. He previously held chairs at the Universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews and Stirling. He is a member of DEFRA’s Science Advisory Council and an editor of three journals (Ecological Economics, Resource and Energy Economics, and Q Open). His research at present is funded by ESRC, BBSRC, NERC, the European Commission, the Wellcome Trust and the Leverhulme Trust, and spans the design of environmental markets, the economics of marine plastics pollution, the persistence of endemic livestock disease, human-wildlife conflicts, and ecological-economic modelling.

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For further information, please contact business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk

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First published: 23 January 2023