One of the world's leading behavioural scientists and economists, Professor Ernst Fehr, and the distinguished researcher Dr. Helga Fehr-Duda from ETH Zurich, will be visiting the University on Thursday 29th April.

Professor Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich will give a non-technical open public lecture on 'The Social and Cultural Foundations of Human Preferences', blending biology, economics, psychology and more. He will question how “community participation” affects preferences, particularly in relation to internet communities.

Professor Fehr said: "Recent evidence indicates that neurobiological factors such as oxytocin, vasopressin and testosterone affect human preferences. I will touch on this research but the main focus of my presentation is directed towards the question how “community participation” affects preferences.

"I take advantage of the possibility to affect individual participation in internet communities to show that community participation renders them generally more altruistic and trusting towards anonymous strangers. Moreover, a higher density of community interactions also causes a boost in trust towards those who reciprocate favours while it diminishes trust towards those who fail to reciprocate, thus generating a much stronger implicit punishment for untrustworthy individuals. Finally, increased social interaction in communities also enhances the strategic sophistication of individuals and raises the prevalence of Machiavellian strategies. These results indicate that the community interactions may have a deep impact on individuals’ preferences, beliefs, and behaviors, lending support to sociological views of society."

Professor Ernst Fehr is one of the world's most creative research scientists and economists and has published large numbers of articles both in scientific journals such as Nature and Science and social-science journals such as Psychological Science and the American Economic Review. Professor Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick described Professor Fehr as "Arguably the most creative research scientist in the world today.  Ernst is a phenomenon; he is rewriting the textbooks in whole fields". 

Dr. Helga Fehr-Duda’s of Zurich's famous technological university, ETH will be giving a seminar entitled “The missing link: Why risk, tolerance and patience increase with time delay”. Dr Fehr-Duda works in the Institute for Environmental Decisions IED at ETH and has published research on the subjects of risk, rationality and uncertainty in Econometrica and the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty.

Dr. Helga Fehr-Duda’s seminar will take place from 4pm-5:15pm in Economics room S2.79. This will be followed by the public lecture from Ernst Fehr at 5:30pm in the ACCR in Warwick Arts Centre. Both events are open to the general public.

Event details:

Dr. Helga Fehr-Duda
Time: 4pm - 5:15pm
Venue: Economics, Room S2.79

Prof. Dr. Ernst Fehr
Time: 5:30pm
Venue: Warwick Arts Centre, ACCR

Both events are open to the general public.