Articles tagged with Decision Making
A new study calls for a radically different approach to addressing deforestation, focusing on understanding how individuals make choices about forests and livelihoods. Researchers propose using specially designed board games to help stakeholders align forces despite differing values and worldviews.
Patients favor expert guidance in healthcare decisions, rather than full autonomy, according to new research from University of Chicago Booth School of Business Professors Emma Levine and Celia Gaertig. In experiments, participants preferred paternalistic advice over autonomy, even when the outcome was unfavorable.
A new scientific statement from the American Heart Association suggests that healthy eating habits in childhood can reduce the risk of adult obesity and heart disease. Allowing children to choose their food options within a healthy environment encourages positive eating behaviors and weight management. Parents and caregivers should foc...
Researchers developed a new process to combine multiple disease models for outbreak management, reducing uncertainty and providing better tools for decision makers. The three-part process allows policymakers to evaluate valuable ideas from across the modeling community and identify critical uncertainties to prioritize research directions.
Research from the University of Notre Dame suggests that investors react more severely to corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) when top management executives have a higher proportion of law degrees. Firms with an average proportion of law-trained executives among their leadership teams tend to receive less punishment, while those wi...
A recent study published in Nature Communications found that people often take the less optimal choice when faced with a decision, despite having knowledge of what works best. The researchers discovered that nearly everyone learned the pattern, but only about 20% followed it when the pattern didn't work consistently.
A new study led by CU Boulder suggests that continued CO2 emissions will significantly reduce our basic decision-making ability and complex strategic thinking. Indoor CO2 levels could reach up to 1400 parts per million, leading to a 25% reduction in basic decision-making ability and a 50% reduction in complex strategic thinking.
A survey of primary care physicians found that one-third did not support the use of medications to treat opioid use disorder (OUD), despite conclusive evidence. The researchers urge policy changes to increase the acceptance of and willingness to prescribe medications for OUD among primary care physicians.
Researchers are using a new variant of reinforcement learning to train robots to predict multiple possible outcomes and choose the safest option. The algorithm will assign points to different outcomes, such as rewarding safer options and penalizing those that put the robot in danger.
A new study by University of Texas at Arlington researchers found that people tend to rely on personal anecdotes rather than facts during medical emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This bias can lead to irrational decision-making and a lack of fact-based decision-making when individuals feel vulnerable.
Open biomass burning has a significant impact on regional air quality, especially in Northeast China. The study found that the number of fire points concentrated in two key periods: March-April and October-November, with most fires occurring in cropland.
A team of scientists and engineers from 10 universities created a web portal (N95decon.org) providing best practices for decontaminating and reusing N95 masks. The website synthesizes scientific literature on mask decontamination methods, including heat, UV-C light, and hydrogen peroxide vapors.
Companies with female directors issued recalls of life-threatening defects 28 days earlier than firms with all-male boards, resulting in a 35% reduction in time. Female directors also initiated 120% more recalls of less severe product defects, including packaging and labeling issues.
A precision medicine approach is necessary to determine which patients with diverticulitis need a colonoscopy. The editorial highlights 'sign posts' that support individualized decision-making and recommends their use. This approach uses healthcare resources wisely and provides better patient care.
A new scale measures individuals' preferences for obtaining or avoiding information in various areas of life, including personal health and finances. Most people prefer to remain uninformed in certain domains, while others consistently choose to face the truth.
A study found that accounting for local perspectives when designing conservation policies may increase community support and improve their success. Local people's frustrations with policies were rooted in technical issues, lack of funding, and inadequate involvement in decision-making.
FAIR Health has launched a groundbreaking website feature that combines clinical and cost information to support seriously and chronically ill patients in shared decision making with clinicians. The new tool offers three palliative care scenarios, including kidney dialysis, nutrition options, and breathing assistance.
Researchers discovered the anterior lateral motor cortex plays a crucial role in integrating vast amounts of information to make decisions, surpassing previous understanding of its primary function. This finding highlights the brain's remarkable ability to adapt to context and informs scientists' larger understanding of brain function.
People with higher obsessive-compulsive symptoms tend to distrust their past experience, leading to increased uncertainty and exploratory behaviors. This study found that individuals with OCD have difficulty trusting acquired knowledge, resulting in an excessive need for updated evidence.
A new study by the University of Washington reveals that experiencing wildness in urban areas is essential for physical and mental health. Researchers surveyed hundreds of park-goers and found that encounters with wildlife, water views, and solitude were key to visitors' meaningful experiences.
A study finds that about 42% of physicians experience moral distress when making decisions for surrogate decision-makers, leading to burnout, depression, and compromised professional integrity. Effective communication with surrogates and patients is key to diminishing physician moral distress.
Researchers at Northwestern University developed a decentralized algorithm that enables swarms of robots to form shapes and avoid collisions. The algorithm views the ground as a grid, allowing each robot to sense its closest neighbors and make local decisions without global information.
Researchers at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School explore the importance of learning and knowledge in environmental decision-making. They argue that educational tools can accelerate climate change adaptation and provide actionable knowledge for societies.
Corinn Rutkoski and Renee Collini have been selected as the 2020 AIBS Emerging Public Policy Leadership Award recipients, recognized for their leadership skills and aptitude for working at the intersection of science and public policy. The award highlights their efforts to integrate science into coastal decision-making and promote soun...
Patients across five academic medical centers reacted favorably to an electronic consultation (eConsult) service for primary care provider-to-specialist consultations. Key benefits included quicker access to specialty care and convenience, with approval rates high among patients with a trusted primary care provider.
Scientists at Virginia Tech explore a novel approach to treat alcohol use disorder by using behavioral analysis and neuroimaging to understand decision-making processes. By pre-experiencing future events, individuals can mentally construct how they will feel, reducing the value they place on alcohol.
Researchers discovered that immune cells count their neighbors before activating to avoid overreactions. This new understanding could lead to improved cancer immunotherapies and treatments for autoimmune diseases.
A new study published in The Journal of Urology found that most patients who underwent prostate cancer surgery experienced low levels of decision regret. Patients who played a more active role in treatment decision-making were less likely to experience regret about their choices, regardless of whether they opted for robot-assisted or o...
Research at EPFL suggests that breathing patterns influence conscious decision-making and acts of free will. The study found that voluntary actions are linked to the body's internal state, particularly during exhalation.
Psychologists from the University of Basel found that people focus their attention on the two most promising options when choosing between multiple alternatives. This leads to faster decisions and improved efficiency. The study's results propose a mathematical model describing dynamic interactions of preference formation and eye moveme...
A study by the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center shows that a lung cancer screening decision aid delivered through tobacco quitlines effectively reaches a screening-eligible population and results in informed decisions about lung cancer screening. The decision aid, which explains eligibility, risks, and benefits, encoura...
Researchers at University of California - San Francisco discovered how the brain generates imagined future scenarios, providing new insights into neurobiology of decision-making. Place cells in the hippocampus rapidly switch between present and possible paths, generating a 'menu' for other parts of the brain to make decisions.
A new University of Alberta study shows that parents who accommodate their child's snack request tend to make better food choices for themselves. The research found that caregivers who listened to their children's preferences ate fewer unhealthy snacks and more healthy ones.
A study at Flinders University in Australia found that a form of cognitive incentive retraining can help regular consumers of energy drinks reduce their consumption. The training aimed to tackle attentional and approach biases towards energy drinks, helping participants moderate their bias towards choosing healthier options.
Researchers identified specific regions of chromosome 21 causing memory and decision-making problems in mice with Down syndrome. The study found that different gene groups on mouse chromosomes 16, 10, and 17 contribute to cognitive issues.
A study published in Perspectives on Behavior Science found that AI models can accurately interpret behavioral data, outperforming a popular visual-aid tool. This could lead to better decision-making and tailored interventions for individuals with developmental disabilities, mental health issues or learning difficulties.
Researchers found that performance rankings dramatically disrupt cooperation in groups, but sharing individuals' histories of pro-social contributions can largely offset this effect. By displaying prosocial reputations, managers can create systems of cooperation that withstand the negative impact of performance rankings.
Researchers developed a quantum reinforcement learning framework to explain human decision-making behaviors, revealing a quantum-like neural mechanism. This breakthrough suggests that the human brain functions similarly to quantum systems, with potential implications for machine learning efficiency.
A new study examined how dispatched call information influences police officer decisions to use deadly force. Inaccurate information about a subject's presence of a weapon was associated with an increased likelihood of shootings of unarmed subjects.
A new study led by Christopher Robertson found no significant differences in charges, fines, and sentences across racial and socioeconomic groups. This contradicts decades' worth of previous research on prosecutorial bias. Instead, policymakers may focus on addressing disparities before arrest, such as economic development and education.
Researchers successfully tracked brain activity of zebrafish larvae to predict decisions, revealing a major role for the cerebellum in cognitive functions. The study used light field microscopy to track neuronal activity and identified specific patterns that predicted correct or incorrect turns.
Researchers created a molecular 3D-map of nerve cells targeted by opioids in striatum, dividing it into subregions with spatiomolecular code. This knowledge may contribute to an increased understanding of normal reward processes and the effects of addictive substances on decision-making.
Researchers at Virginia Tech and University College London discovered a key brain region that drives confirmation bias, where activity modulates decision-making and memory. The study found that people tend to favor information reinforcing their existing opinions over contradictory ones.
A recent study published in Nature Neuroscience found that when people disagree, their brains fail to encode the quality of the other person's opinion, making it harder to change their minds. This type of confirmation bias can lead to polarization and the maintenance of false beliefs.
Researchers are working on a new project to develop transparent and explainable deep-learning AI computing models that make decisions. The project will use adversarial training techniques to understand how neural networks learn and make predictions.
A new research from a cross-organisational consortium in the Amazon found that indigenous knowledge can be as accurate as scientific transect monitoring. The study used the cultural consensus approach to develop suites of species for which their abundance could reliably be estimated.
The researchers highlight the urgent need for investment in research infrastructure to provide reliable data on population health, nutrition, and agricultural practices. An international body is proposed to address pressing nutritional and agricultural issues and prepare policy decisions.
A new decision aid tool has been shown to reduce the time patients spend speaking with genetic counselors while increasing their knowledge of the benefits of genomic sequencing. The study found that patients who used the Genomics ADvISER needed to spend 24 minutes less speaking with a counselor than those who did not access the tool.
New studies examine prescribed fires' effectiveness and explore wildfires' characteristics as predictors of firefighting resource demand. Researchers aim to improve wildfire risk assessments and optimize fire management resource allocation.
Review Commons, launched by ASAPbio and EMBO Press, enables high-quality pre-journal peer review of manuscripts from the life sciences. This platform empowers authors to make informed decisions on paper submission and expedites submission to affiliate journals without restarting reviews.
A freshwater protist exhibits a hierarchy of avoidance behaviors, suggesting it can change its response to an environmental irritant. The study confirms that single cells can exhibit relatively complex decision-making processes, making evolutionary sense given their apex predator status in aquatic environments.
University of Texas and MIT researchers develop predictive digital twins for UAVs, using physics-based models to capture the details of their behavior. The system can make real-time predictions of a UAV's health, enabling autonomous decision-making and reducing the risk of crashes.
Researchers confirm what Herbert Spencer Jennings described over 100 years ago: single-celled organisms like S. roeseli can make decisions that allow them to 'change their mind.' The findings suggest a hierarchy of avoidance behaviors determined by previous experience, with protists exhibiting complex problem-solving behaviors in respo...
A new tool called Long-term Investor Value Appropriation (LIVA) has been introduced to measure long-term firm performance and shareholder value. LIVA uses stock price data to calculate a backward-looking net present value over a given period, providing a more accurate reflection of underlying economic performance.
Researchers found that district-level police crime centers associated with significant reductions in robberies and burglaries, as well as shootings and sexual assault. The approach enabled novel responses to crime incidents and improved rapid decision-making among police.
Researchers aim to understand the needs and experiences of LGBT older adults with Alzheimer's disease and their surrogate decision makers. They will explore emotional, spiritual, and religious aspects of surrogacy and its impact on medical decisions.
Researchers have mapped zebrafish brain regions involved in decision making, revealing how sensory information is integrated to trigger a behavior. The study uses whole-brain imaging and behavioral paradigms to demonstrate the accumulation of evidence over time.
Researchers have discovered that people make choices based on a model of the 'mind of the group' and an evolving simulation of its effects. In large groups, humans create an average model of a 'mind' representative of the group, even when identities are unknown.
A new modeling approach can help researchers, policymakers and the public better understand how policy decisions will influence human migration as sea levels rise. The approach suggests that global policy decisions about greenhouse gas emissions and coastal policies will determine whether people need to migrate and where they may go.
A recent court ruling in Ontario allows physicians to withhold CPR from patients they believe will not benefit from it, but emphasizes the importance of communicating concerns with families. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has updated its end-of-life policy to reflect this change.