Overview
Ido Erev (PhD: University of North Carolina, 1990, Cognitive/Quantitative Psychology).
Ido joined the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management in 1990 as a Lecturer. He was promoted to Full Professor in 2004, and holds the “Women’s Division—ATS Academic Chair” since 2006. He presently serves as the Vice Dean for the MBA programs, the Head of the Behavioral Science Area, the head of the Technion section of the Max Wertheimer Minerva Center for Cognitive Research, and the head of the Technion group in the ICORE for Empirical Legal Studies of Decision Making.
Ido has been a visiting research associate in Economics at the University of Pittsburgh; a Michael A. Gould fellow at Columbia Business School; a Marvin Bower Fellow at Harvard Business School; a fellow in the Israel Center of Advanced Studies; a visiting professor at Erasmus School of Economics; a visiting professor at the Interdisciplinary center (IDC) in Herzliya; and a research environment professor at Warwick Business School.
Ido and his co-workers focus on three related lines of research. The first line centers on the observation of a large difference between decisions that are made based on a description of the incentive structure, and decisions that are made based on experience: People tend to exhibit oversensitivity to rare events in decisions from description, and the opposite bias in decisions from experience. This observation, initially documented by Barron & Erev (2003) and now known as the experience-description gap (Hertwig & Erev, 2009), is important as mainstream behavioral economic research (e.g., Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) focus on decisions from description, and most of the application effort involve decisions from experience. Ido and his co-workers address this problem by systematic study of decisions from experience.
A second line of research focuses on the difference between anomalies and forecasts. The leading models of choice behavior tend to focus on interesting anomalies. Since each model focuses on few isolated anomalies, it is not easy to use these models to derive clear forecasts. That is, it Is not clear which of the leading models should be used to address a new choice problem. Ido and his co-workers try to address this problem by developing general models, and then organizing international choice prediction competitions in which they challenge other researchers to propose better models that can capture all the classical anomalies and allow ex ante predictions of behavior
(for example, see http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/economics/teachers/ert_eyal/competition.htm).
A third line of research centers on the practical implications of the basic research summarized above. The experience-description gap, and the models that best capture it, suggest that economic incentives are most effective when they insure that the socially desirable behavior maximizes payoff, and also minimizes the probability of regret. Ido and his co-authors use this observation to address distinct social and organizational problems. For example, they demonstrate that gentle rule enforcement methods are more effective in improving safety in industrial settings than traditional policies (see Erev & Roth, 2014).
Selected Publications
Papers
- Wallsten, T.S., Budescu, D.V. & Erev, I. (1988), “Understanding and using linguistic uncertainties”. Acta Psychologica, 68, 39-52.
- Rapoport, A., Bornstein, G. & Erev, I. (1989), “Intergroup competition for public goods: Effect of unequal resources and relative group size”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 748-756.
- Erev, I. & Cohen, B.L. (1990), "Verbal versus numerical probabilities: Efficiency, biases, and the preference paradox". Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 45, 1-18.
- Rapoport, A., Wallsten, T.S., Erev, I. & Cohen, B.L. (1990), “Revision of opinion with verbally and numerically expressed uncertainty”. Acta Psychologica, 74, 61-69.
- Bornstein, G., Erev, I. & Rozen, O. (1990), “Intergroup competition as a structural solution for social dilemma”.Social Behavior, 5, 247-260.
- Budescu, D.V., Zwick, R., Wallsten, T.S. & Erev, I. (1990), “Integration of linguistic probabilities”, International Journal of Man Machine Studies, 33, 657-676.
- Erev, I. & Rapoport, A. (1990), "Provision of step-level public goods: The sequential contribution mechanism". Journal of Conflict Resolution, 34, 401-425.
- Erev, I. Wallsten, T.S. & Neal, M. (1991), "Vagueness, ambiguity and the cost of mutual understanding". Psychological Science, 5, 321-324.
- Erev, I., Bornstein, G. & Wallstein, T.S. (1993), "The negative effect of probability assessments on decision quality". Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 55, 78-94.
- Erev, I. & Wallsten, T.S. (1993), "The effect of explicit probabilities on the decision weights and the reflection effect". Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 6, 221-241.
- Erev, I., Bornstein, G. & Galili, R. (1993), "Constructive intergroup competition as a solution to the free rider problem in the workplace". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 29, 463-478.
- Bornstein, G., Erev, I. & Goren, H. (1994), "Learning processes and reciprocality in intergroup conflicts". Journal of Conflict Resolution, 38, 690-707.
- Gonzalez-Vallejo, C., Erev, I. & Wallsten, T.S. (1994), “Do decision quality and preference order depend on whether probabilities are verbal or numerical?”. The American Journal of Psychology, 107, 157-172.
- Erev, I., Wallsten, T.S. & Budescu, D.V. (1994), "Simultaneous over- and underconfidence: the role of error in judgment processes". Psychological Review, 101, 519-527.
- Wakker, P., Erev, I. & Weber, E. (1994), "Comonotonic independence: The critical test between classical and rank-dependent utility theories". Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 9, 195-230.
- Bornstein, G. & Erev, I. (1994), "The enhancing effect of intergroup competition on group performance". International Journal of Conflict Management, 5, 271-284.
- Rapoport, A., Erev, I. & Zwick, R. (1995), "Bargaining behavior in bilateral monopoly with one-sided incomplete information". Management Science, 41, 377-394.
- Roth, A.E. & Erev, I. (1995), Learning in extensive form games: Experimental data and simple dynamic models in the intermediate term". Games and Economics Behavior, 8, 164-212.
- Erev, I., Gopher, D., Itkin, R. & Greenshpan, Y. (1995), "Toward a generalization of Signal Detection Theory to n-person games: The example of two person safety problem". Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 39, 360-376.
- Gilat, S., Meyer, J., Erev, I. & Gopher, D. (1997), "Beyond Bayes theorem: The effect of base rate information in consensus games and the effect of base rate information". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 3, 83-104.
- Budescu,D.V., Erev, I., Wallsten, T.S. & Yates, J.F. (1997), "Introduction" (to a special issue on stochastic and cognitive models of confidence). Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 10, 153-155.
- Budescu, D.V., Erev, I. & Wallsten, T.S. (1997), "On the importance of random error in the study of probability judgment". Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 10, 153-171.
- Wallsten, T.S., Budescu, D.V., Erev, I. & Diedrich, A. (1997), "A cognitive foundation for combining subjective probability estimates: overconfident judges can be collectively diagnostic". Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 10, 243-268.
- Rapoport, A., Erev, I., Abraham, E.V. & Olson, D.E. (1997), "Randomization and adaptive learning in a simplified poker game". Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 69, 31-49.
- Rapoport, A., Seale, D., Erev, I. & Sundali, J.A. (1998), "Equilibrium Play in Large Group by Advertise Group Market Entry Games". Management Science, 44, No. 1, 119-141.
- Erev, I. & Rapoport, A. (1998), "Magic, reinforcement learning and coordination in a market entry game". Games and Economic Behavior, 23, 146-175.
Bereby-Meyer, Y. & Erev, I. (1998), "On learning to become a successful loser: A comparison of alternative abstractions of learning processes in the loss domain". Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 42, 266-286. - Barkan, R., Zohar, D. & Erev, I. (1998), " Accidents and decision making under uncertainty: A comparison of four models". Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 74, 118-144.
- Erev, I. (1998), "Signal detection by human observers: A cutoff reinforcement learning model of categorization decisions under uncertainty". Psychological Review, 105, 280-298.
- Erev, I. & Roth, A. (1998), "Prediction how people play games: Reinforcement learning in games with unique strategy equilibrium". American Economic Review, 88, 848-881.
- Erev, I., Bereby-Meyer, Y. & Roth, A.E. (1999), " The effect of adding a constant to all payoffs: experimental investigation, and implications for reinforcement learning models". J. of Economic Behavior and Organizations, 39 (1) 111-128.
- Gopher, D., Itkin, T., Erev, I., Meyer, J. & Armony, L., (2000) "The effect of shared responsibility and competition in perceptual games: A test of a cognitive game theoretic extension of signal detection theory". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Performance and Perception, 26 (1), 325-341.
- Wallsten, D., Erev, I., & Budescu, D., (2000), "The Importance of Theory: Response to Brenner (2000)". Psychological Review,107 (1), 947-949.
- Haruvy, E., Erev, I., & Sonsino, D. (2001) "The medium prizes paradox: Evidence from a simulated casino". Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 22, 251-261.
- Sonsino, D., Erev, I., & S. Gilat (2001) , “On Rationality, Learning and Zero-Sum Betting - An Experimental Study of the No-Betting Conjecture. Technion Working Paper.
- Yechiam, E., Erev, I., & Gopher, D. (2001) "On value and limitation of emphasis change training methods". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. Vol 7(4): 277-285.
- Erev, I., A.E. Roth, S.L. Slonim, and G. Barron (2002), "Predictive value and the usefulness of game theoretic models," International Journal of Forecasting, 18(3), 359-368
- Perry, O., Haruvy, E., Erev, I. (2002), "Frequent Delayed Probabilistic Punishment in Law Enforcement". Economics of Governance, 3, 71-85.
- Yechiam, E., Haruvy, E., Erev, I., (2002). "Reinforcement learning and the prevention of data catastrophes". Journal of Managerial Psychology, 17, 599-611
- Yechiam, E., Barron, G., Erev, I., & Erez, M. (2003) "Cause related marketing: The equalizer". Journal of Consumer behavior, 2, 320-332.
- Meyer, J., Gilat, S. & Erev, I. (2003), "Consensus games in categorization decisions". Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 47, 417-428.
- Barron, G. & Erev, I. (2003), "Small feedback based decisions and their limited correspondence to description based decisions". Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 16, 215-233.
(Based on this paper Barron won the 2003 de-Finetti prize, 42. awarded by the European Association for Decision Making, for the best paper written (or co-authored) by a graduate student.) - Yechiam, E., Erev, I., Yehene, V., & Gopher, D. (2003), "On the transition from touch-typing training to everyday use: The value of continued strategic encouragement". Human Factors, 45 (4): 671-684
- Erev, I., Barron, G., & Remington, R. (2004), "Right of way in the sky: Two problems in aircraft self-separation and the auction-based solution". Human Factors. 46(2). 277-287
- Hertwig, R. Barron, G., Weber, E. and Erev, I. (2004), "Decisions from experience and the weighting of rare events". Psychological Science, 15 (8): 534-539.
- Yechiam, E. Erev, I., & Parush, A. (2004), "Easy-first training programs". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 10 (2): 89-96
- Barkan, R., Erev, I., Singer, E. and Zach, M. (2005), "Tips allocation rule, visibility and quality of service in restaurants"
- Bamberger, P., Erev, I., Kimmel, M., & Oref-Chen T. (2005), "The effects of peer assessment on individual performance and contribution to group processes: The impact of anonymity". Group and Organism Management. 30 (4): 344-377.
- Hanaki, N., Sethi, R., Erev, I. & Peterhansl, A. (2005), "Learning strategies". Journal of Economic Behavior and Organizations. 56 (4): 523-542
- Yechiam, E., Barron, G. & Erev, I. (2005), "Description, experience and the effect of rare terrorist attacks". Journal of Conflict Resolutions. 49 (3), 430-439
- Erev, I. and Barron, G. (2005), "On adaptation, maximization and reinforcement learning among cognitive strategies". Psychological Review. 112(4), 912-931
- Erev, I.& Haruvy, E. (2005). "Generality, Repetition, and the Role of Descriptive Learning Models". Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 49 (5): 357-371
Munichor, N., Erev, I., & Lotem, A. (2006). "Risk attitude and small time saving decisions". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. Vol 7(4): 277-285. - Grosskopf, B., Erev, I. & Yechiam, E. (2006), "Forgone with the wind". International Journal Of Game Theory.
Yechiam, E. Erev, I., & Barron, G. (2006), "Insurance, safety, and the contradicting effects of experience and presentation". Safety Science. - Erev, I., Roth, A.E., Slonim, R.L., & Barron, G. (2007), "Descriptive models as Generators of Forecasts with Known Equivalent Number of Observations (ENO)", Economic Theory, 33 (1), 29-51.
- Ert, E., & Erev, I. (2007). "Replicated alternatives and the role of confusion, chasing, and regret in decisions from experience" Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 20 (3), 305-322.
- Erev, I., & Roth, A.E., (2007). “Multi-agent learning and the descriptive value of simple models.” Artificial Intelligence Journal, 171, 7, 423-428.
- Zohar, D. & Erev, I. (2007), “On the Difficulty of Promoting Workers’ Safety Behavior: Overcoming the Underweighting of Routine Risks”. International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, 7 (2), 122-136.
- Grodzinski, U., Erev I., Lotem A. (2008). "Can hungry nestling be trained to reduce their begging?" Behavioral Ecology, 19, 116-125.
- Ben-Elia E., Erev, I., & Shiftan Y. (2008). "The combined effect of information and experience on drivers' route-choice behavior" Transportation, 35, 2, 165-177.
- Erev, I., Glozman, I., & Hertwig, R. (2008). "What impacts the impact of rare events" Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 36 (2), 153-177.
- Erev, I., Ert, E., and Yechiam, E. (2008). "Loss aversion, diminishing sensitivity, and the effect of experience on repeated decisions" Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 21(5): 575-597.
- Ert, E., & Erev, I. (2008) "The Rejection of Attractive Gambles and the Heuristic Interpretation of Loss Aversion" Journal of Economic psychology, 29, 715–723.
- Shafir, S., Reich, T. Tsur, E., Erev, I. & Lotem, A. (2008). "Perceptual accuracy and conflicting effects of certainty on risk-taking behaviour." Nature, 453, 12 June, 917-921.
- Luria, G., Zohar, D. & Erev, I. (2008). "The effect of Visibility on Supervisors’ Commitment to Safety" Journal of Safety Research, 39, 273–280.
- Biele, G., Erev I., & Ert, E. (2009). "Learning, risk attitude and hot stoves in restless bandit problems" Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 53, 3,155-167.
- Hertwig, R., & Erev, I. (2009). "The description–experience gap in risky choice" Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13, 517-523.
- Erev, I. Ert, E. Roth, A. E., Haruvy, E., Herzog, S., Hau, R. Hertwig, R. Stewart, T., West, R. and Lebiere, C. (2010) "A choice prediction competition, for choices from experience and from description" Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 23, 15-47.
- Erev, I. & Haruvy, E. (2010) "Two-stage lotteries and the value of unresolved uncertainty" Marketing Letters, 21, 2, 149-162.
- Erev, I., Ingram P., Raz, O. and Shany, D. (2010) "Continuous punishment and the potential of gentle rule enforcement" Behavioural Processes, 84, 1, 366-371.
- Erev, I., Rodensky, D., Levi, M., Hershler, M., Adami, H., Donchin, Y. (2010). "The value of gentle enforcement on safe medical procedures" Quality and Safety in Health Care
- Ben Zion, U., Erev, I., Haruvy, E., & Shavit, T. (2010). "Adaptive behavior leads to under-diversification" Journal of Economic psychology, 31, 985–995.
- Erev, I., Ert, E., Roth, A.E. (2010) "A choice prediction competition for market entry games: An introduction" Games, 1, 117-136.
- Ert, E., Erev, I., Roth, A.E. (2011) "A Choice Prediction Competition for Social Preferences in Simple Distribution Games: An Introduction." Games.
- Ert, E., & Erev, I. (2011). "76. On the descriptive value of loss aversion in decisions under risk." Working Paper.
- Erev, I & Roth A. E. (2014). Maximization, Learning and Economic Behavior. Proceedings and National Academy of Science, 111, 10818–10825. http://iew.technion.ac.il/lad/files/Erev-Roth-Feb14-2014.pdf
- Teodorescu, K. & Erev, I. (2014). Learned helplessness and learned prevalence: Exploring the causal relations among perceived controllability, reward prevalence, and exploration. Psychological Science. 25(10) 1861–1869. DOI: 10.1177/0956797614543022
Book Chapters
- Erev, I. (1992), "The effect of explicit probability estimates on violations of subjective expected utility theory in the Allais paradox". In: Decision Making under Risk and Uncertainty: New models and empirical finding, J. Geweke (Ed.). Dordecht: Kluwer Academic Publisher.
- Rapoport, A. & Erev, I. (1994), "Provision of step-level public goods: Effects of different information structures". In: U. Schulz, W. Albers & U. Mueller (Eds.), Social Dilemmas and Cooperation (pp 147-171). New York: Springer-Verlag.
- Erev, I. (1994), "Convergence in the orange grove: Learning processes in a social dilemma setting". In: U. Schulz, W. Albers & U. Mueller (Eds.), Social Dilemmas and Cooperation (pp. 187-206). New York: Springer-Verlag.
- Erev, I., Maital, S. & Or-Hof, O. (1997), "Melioration, adaptive learning and the effect of constant re-evaluations of strategies". In: G. Antoniedes, F. van Raaij & S. Maital (Eds.), Advances in Economic Psychology. Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons.
- Erev, I. & Gopher, D. (1999), "A cognitive game theoretic analysis of attention strategies, ability and incentives". In: D. Gopher & A. Koriat (Eds.), Attention and Performance XVII: Cognitive Regulation of Performance: Interaction of Theory and Applications. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Erev, I. & Roth, A.E. (1999), "On the role of reinforcement learning in experimental games: The cognitive game-theoretic approach". In: D. Budescu, I.
- Erev & R. Zwick (Eds.), Games and Human Behavior: Essays in Honor of Amnon Rapoport. LEA
- Zwick, R., Erev, I. & Budescu, D. (1999), "Can psychologists and economists cooperate in the study of human decisions in social and interactive contexts?" In: D. Budescu, I. Erev & R. Zwick (Eds.), Games and Human Behavior: Essays in Honor of Amnon Rapoport. LEA.
- Erev, I. & Roth, A.E. (2001), "On simple reinforcement learning models and reciprocation in the prisoner dilemma game". In Gigerenzer, G. and Selten, R. (Eds.), The Adaptive Toolbox. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Mellers, B.A., Erev, I., Fessler, D.M.T., Hemelrijk, C.K., Hertwig, R., Laland, K.N., Scherer, K.R., Seeley, T.D., Selten, R. & Tetlock, P.E. (2001). "Effects of emotions and social processes on bounded rationality." In Gigerenzer, G. and Selten, R. (Eds.), The Adaptive Toolbox. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Haruvy, E. & Erev, I. (2002), On the Application and Interpretation of Learning Models. In Zwick R. and Rapoport A. (Eds.), Experimental Business Research. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
- Hertwig, R. Barron, G., Weber, E. and Erev, I. (2006), Risky Prospects: When Valued Through A Window of Sampled Experiences. In K. Fiedler, & P.Juslin (Eds.), Information sampling and adaptive cognition (pp. 72-91). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
- Erev, I., & Livne-Tarandach, R. (2005)."Experiment-based exams and the difference between the behavioral and the natural sciences". In Zwick R. and Rapoport A. (Eds.), Experimental Business Research, Vol 3. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
- Erev, I. (2007). On the weighting of rare events and the economics of small decisions. In: S. H. Oda (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Economics, Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, Vol. 590. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
- Parush, A., Ahuvia, S. & Erev, I. (2007). "Degradation in spatial knowledge Acquisition when using automatic navigation systems". In S. Winter, M. Duckham, L. Kulik & B. Kuipers (eds). (2007). Spatial Information Theory. 8th International Conference, COSIT 2007. (pp. 238–254). Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
- Erev, I., Shinovich, D., Schurr, A., & Hertwig, R. (2008). "On the effect of base rates in perception studies, and base rate neglect in judgment studies". In: H. Plessner, C Betsch and T. Betsch (Eds.). Intuition in Judgment and Decision Making. (pp. 135-148). LEA.
- Erev, I., Haruvy, E. (in press). "Learning and the economics of small decisions". Invited chapter submitted to Kagel, J.H. and Roth, A.E. (Eds.), The Handbook of Experimental Economics. Princeton University Press.
- Erev, I. and Grainer, B. (in press). On Psychology, Economics, and the Prediction of Human Behavior. Invited chapter submitted to Guillaume F. and Schotter A. (Eds.) The handbook on Methods of Modern Experimental Economics. Oxford University Press.
Books
- Budescu, D., Erev, I. & Zwick, R. (1999), Games and Human Behavior: Essays in Honor of Amnon Rapoport. LEA.
Teaching
Thinking and decision-making (undergraduate and graduate)
Behavioral implications of game theory (graduate and MBA)
Cognitive psychology (undergraduate and graduate)
Introduction to psychology (undergraduate)
Experimental psychology (undergraduate)
Negotiation (MBA)
Behavioral statistics (undergraduate)
Research
Decisions from experience • Descriptive models of choice behavior, and choice prediction competitions • The economics of small decisions