Why Social Sciences Need Experiments

Experiments aren't new to economics, but there is a new way to make use of them and Università Bocconi, with its Bocconi Experimental Laboratory for the Social Sciences (BELSS), aims to be the central node of an intellectual community interested in cross disciplinary experimentation, Martin Dufwenberg, BELSS' director, said this morning during the Experiments in Business and Economics workshop at Bocconi.

"There used to be a classical way to use experiments in economics in markets theory, decision theory and game theory", he affirmed, "but now there is a new kid on the block, behavioural economics. With this discipline the focus shifts from pure economics to social sciences, because it incorporates the results mainly of psychology, but also sociology, anthropology and neurosciences, just to name a few".

BELSS' director since last September, Dufwenberg comes from University of Arizona, where he was director of the Economic Science Laboratory and of the Institute for Behavioral Economics.

After Dufwenberg's introduction, four guests highlighted the ways experiments can contribute to the development of cross-disciplinary knowledge. Stefano Cappa (Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele) discussed the contribution of functional imaging and neurostimulation approaches to management decisions. Marco Casari (Università di Bologna) talked about the behavioural foundation of the Italian North-South divide. Gary Charness (University of California Santa Barbara) highlighted how communication affects contract design. Uri Gneezy (University of California San Diego), finally, explained why people don't lie more.