How Attention Might Shape Reference-Based Evaluation
About
Reference-based utility is a way of assessing how desirable a choice is. A central insight of behavioral economics is that we evaluate outcomes against a reference point, not on their own. A $300 tax refund feels like a gain if you were expecting nothing and like a $200 loss if you were expecting $500. Real decisions are multidimensional: price, time, and quality can all be considerations, each with its own potential reference point. So, does it add anything to our understanding to ask how psychological attention is allocated across the dimensions of a decision? In this talk, Jeff draws on research to argue that it does. Jeff lays out several specific ways attention may shape these decisions, and what we should see in behavior if it does.
Details
- Date:
- Friday, October 9, 2026
- Time:
- 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
- Location:
- CDS 1646
- Theme:
- Computational Methodology, Social Science
Speaker
Jeff Hastings
Jeff Hastings is a PhD student in the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences at Boston University, advised by Dr. Joshua Peterson. He earned a BA and MA in Political Science from Utah State University, followed by an MS in Computational Social Science from the University of California, San Diego. His research applies machine learning, deep learning, and reinforcement learning to better understand, explain, and improve human, artificial, and agentic decision-making. Prior to his PhD, he worked as an AI Data Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific.