Research
Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the PPE program, our undergraduates are able to cut across boundaries and collaborate with a variety of faculty in an array of subjects. PPE is particularly committed both to undergraduate research and to the concept of “research without boundaries.” Our curriculum is structured in such a way that students interested in doing research can design a theme rather than concentrating on a subject. For example, students wanting to study distributive justice may choose courses in Philosophy, Economics, Political Science and other departments in the College, in Legal Studies at Wharton, in Government Administration at Fels, and in Law at the Law School.
In the past PPE students have done research on topics in economics, political science, public policy, psychology, applied ethics, law, and political philosophy. PPE makes an effort to match students with faculty who have compatible research interests. In addition, we are planning to start summer research opportunities for PPE students; students will co-write proposals for summer research with faculty and will be actively involved in doing research (rather than working as research assistants).
Several PPE faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students are interested in the application of game theory and behavioral decision making to social, political, economic, and moral contexts. We are involved in research on the behavioral foundations of moral choices, the behavioral determinants of trust, fairness and cooperation, the emergence, stability, or destruction of norms within an evolutionary game theoretic context. Some of our research work involves laboratory experiments in collaboration with the Psychology department and Wharton. Other research entails computer simulations of the evolution of norms of fairness and reciprocity. We aim to develop a theoretical understanding of social and moral norms by carefully developing operational definitions of them, in order to make predictions that can be empirically tested. These basic techniques are already being extended to the examination of the social structure of science, the role of emotions in norm enforcement and punishment, and the evolution of political institutions.