University of Chicago GSB Receives $2.2MM Grant
For Its Center For Decision Research
Issue date: 2/8/07 Section: GSB Life
Thaler said "Our goal with the Human Nature/Human Potential program is to better understand fundamental human capabilities and tendencies, with an eye toward using these basic tendencies that are often recognized as shortcomings to improve human functioning. Only an empirical-based understanding of human nature can provide insights into such possibilities for improvement, and we will use rigorous scientific research to uncover these possibilities and develop individual and policy-level applications to improve human life."
The three-year Human Nature/Human Potential program will begin on March 15, 2007. Questions the program will explore include:
* What is the effect of goal setting on performance and levels of satisfaction, and how do we optimize both? How can we improve self-control in the present to better enable the attainment of long-term goals?
* How do spiritual values affect people's views of their purposes and social relationships? Is the development of values similar across cultures, or are there important variants that might explain why different cultures hold different values, or hold them with differing convictions?
* How can we harness the wisdom acquired through life experience by the elderly to enhance their cognitive functioning and thereby improve their quality of life?
* Can we design a science of happiness and well-being that is as sophisticated and thorough as the existing science of economics? Can a mature science of hedonomics provide an accurate measure of happiness, a true understanding of the relationship between happiness and wealth, and strategies to optimize happiness without altering existing material possessions and income?
This is the second grant Chicago GSB has received recently from the Templeton Foundation. In 2005, Luigi Zingales, the Robert C. McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance, received a $150,000 grant for "Optimism, Economic Success, and Free Markets," a research project on how optimism contributes to the economic self-realization of individuals.
The three-year Human Nature/Human Potential program will begin on March 15, 2007. Questions the program will explore include:
* What is the effect of goal setting on performance and levels of satisfaction, and how do we optimize both? How can we improve self-control in the present to better enable the attainment of long-term goals?
* How do spiritual values affect people's views of their purposes and social relationships? Is the development of values similar across cultures, or are there important variants that might explain why different cultures hold different values, or hold them with differing convictions?
* How can we harness the wisdom acquired through life experience by the elderly to enhance their cognitive functioning and thereby improve their quality of life?
* Can we design a science of happiness and well-being that is as sophisticated and thorough as the existing science of economics? Can a mature science of hedonomics provide an accurate measure of happiness, a true understanding of the relationship between happiness and wealth, and strategies to optimize happiness without altering existing material possessions and income?
This is the second grant Chicago GSB has received recently from the Templeton Foundation. In 2005, Luigi Zingales, the Robert C. McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance, received a $150,000 grant for "Optimism, Economic Success, and Free Markets," a research project on how optimism contributes to the economic self-realization of individuals.
Be the first to comment on this story