The Biological Origins of Decision Making: How Hormones Influence Our Decision-Making Process
Presented by Gideon Nave, Assistant Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School 
Wednesday October 19, 2016 – 5:45 pm
Offices of McCarter & English – Newark, NJ
Are you, or do you know, an “alpha male”? Is he an alpha male “alpha” naturally or is he using a performance enhancing substance to outperform others and become more confident and aggressive? Forget cocaine and amphetamines – the new drug of choice for many men looking to outcompete their peers in business is testosterone.
Western society has experienced a T ‘shock’ over the past decade from a rapidly growing testosterone replacement therapy industry, with annual sales estimated at over $2B USD in 2013. Demand for testosterone prescriptions has also become a trend on Wall Street, where financial professionals have come to believe that high testosterone levels turn them into “alpha males”, yield greater financial gains, and increase professional status. But is this a good thing, and how does it affect their decision-making?
Prof. Nave has studied the effects of testosterone on human judgment. He and his colleagues tested whether study participants who received testosterone impaired their capacity to override incorrect intuitive judgments with deliberate correct responses. And they found that testosterone does indeed affect the quality of decision-making. But was the effect positive?
Please join us when Prof. Nave discusses his research and its consequences.
Speaker Biography
Professor Nave's research uses a medley of quantitative and experimental methods from the fields of Computational Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, Game Theory, and Machine Learning, for reverse-engineering the decision-making process in humans.
Nave's research was published in top academic journals such as Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Management Science, and Journal of Marketing Research.
Nave holds a PhD in Computation & Neural Systems from Caltech. He completed his B.Sc and M.Sc in Electrical Engineering at the Technion - Israel institute of technology, specializing in Signal Processing.
More information is available on Gideon’s personal page and his blog.
Agenda
The evening's agenda will include:
- 5:45 pm – 6:45 pm Dining & Open Networking
- 6:45 pm - 7:00 pm Introductions
- 7:00 pm - 8:15 pm Presentation and Q&A
- 8:15 pm – 8:30 pm Dessert and More Open Networking
Pricing:
- SUPPORTING WCNJ MEMBER* and coming by yourself? Special Pricing for WCNJ Supporting Members: $35.00 (and you can invite a BASIC WCNJ MEMBER* for FREE when you register!)
- SUPPORTING WCNJ MEMBER* and want to bring a guest who’s not a Wharton or UPenn alum? Special Pricing for WCNJ Supporting Members plus One (1) Guest: $70.00 (and you can also invite a BASIC WCNJ MEMBER* for FREE when you register!)
- BASIC WCNJ MEMBER: $70.00
- ALL OTHER GUESTS: $85.00
* A SUPPORTING WCNJ MEMBER is: any Wharton or University of Penn alum who has an active WCNJ membership in one of the following categories:
- New Graduate (1st Year after Graduation) or Current Student
- Young Alum (between 1 and 5 years after Graduation)
- Standard 1-Year Member
- Standard 2-Year Member
- Dual WCNJ-Penn Metro Club of NJ Member
- Dual WCNJ-Wharton Health Care Management Alumni Association Member
A BASIC WCNJ MEMBER is: any Wharton alum living or working in New Jersey who does NOT have an active WCNJ Supporting Membership as described above.
Location and Directions
McCarter & English, LLP
Four Gateway Center
100 Mulberry St.
Newark, NJ 07102
(973) 622-4444
Click here for directions.