Research
I study how people think about moral questions, especially questions about public policy. Current topics of interest are the nature of individual differences in reflective and intuitive thinking, and the possible existence of naïve theories of the role of citizens in democracies, such as the idea that people should vote for their self-interest or for the interests of groups with which they identify.- CV (html), (pdf)
- Paid Web studies (I need more volunteers for these.)
- Public archives of experiments and data
Experiments, data, unpublished papers, and slides of talks are all licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. This means that you can do what you want with them, but you must acknowledge the source.
Teaching and research supervision
Doing research with meI am no longer teaching classes, but here are some old ones:
Seminar in moral judgment, law, and public policy (spring 2013)
Seminar in behavioral law and economics (spring 2011)
Judgments and decisions (graduate, half of fall term 2012)
Judgments and decisions (undergraduate, fall 2010)
Books
- Baron J. (1985). Rationality and intelligence. Cambridge University Press.
- Baron, J. (1988, 1994, 2000, 2008). Thinking and Deciding. Cambridge University Press (errata). (Chinese translation of 4th edition.)
- Baron, J. & Brown, R. V. (Eds.) (1991). Teaching decision making to adolescents. Erlbaum (now Routledge).
- Baron, J. (1993). Morality and rational choice. Kluwer (now Springer).
- Mellers, B. A. & Baron, J. (Eds.) (1993). Psychological perspectives on justice. Cambridge University Press.
- Baron, J. (1998). Judgment misguided: Intuition and error in public decision making [full text, with permission]. (Published by Oxford University Press). (References.)
- Weber, E. U., Baron, J., & Loomes, G., (Eds.) (2000). Conflict and tradeoffs in decision making: Essays in honor of Jane Beattie. Cambridge University Press. (Introduction.)
- Bazerman, M. H., Baron, J., & Shonk, K. (2001). You can't enlarge the pie: The psychology of ineffective government. Basic Books.
- Baron, J. (2006). Against bioethics. MIT Press.
- Li, Y., & Baron, J. (2011). Behavioral research data analysis with R. Springer. e-book
Some drafts and talks
The html slides work
properly with current versions of
Firefox, in full-screen mode
(F11).
- Reply (submitted) to Kahan and Corbin on AOT and politics.
- A utilitarian perspective on how citizens think about their political decisions, American Political Science Association pre-conference on political psychology, Aug. 31, 2016.
- A meta-analysis of response-time
tests of the sequential two-systems model of moral judgment (working paper, with Burcu Gürçay)
(poster for 2015 SJDM meeting)
- Philosophical impediments to citizens' use of science, Annenberg conference on science communication, Oct. 17, 2014 (paper)
- Actively open-minded thinking and reflection-impulsivity as alternatives to the sequential two-system theory of the cognitive reflection test and moral judgment (SJDM, 2013).
- Moral judgment, CRT, reflection-impulisivity, actively open-minded thinking, and religion (Penn 2013)
- Two-systems (Brown 2013)
- Omission bias and two-systems, etc. (SJDM 2012)
- Belief overkill (Penn, 5/23/11)
- Citizens' concepts of their duty (Yale, 4/28/11)
- The "culture of honor" in citizens' concepts of their duty (pdf)
Wharton Issue Brief about this study- Looking at individual subjects in research on judgment and decision making (or anything), (SEP 4/30/10) (paper with flipped graphs)
- Risk attitude, investments, and the taste for luxury (For workshop on financial services, 11/6/09). (pdf)
- Prospects for utilitarian decision analysis. (slides) (For "New ideas for risk regulation," 6/23/09.)
- Baron, J. (2008). Cognitive biases in moral judgments that affect political behavior. (pdf)
- Ritov, I., & Baron, J. (revised 2010). Joint presentation reduces the effect of emotion on evaluation of public actions. (pdf)
- The nature and origin of some non-utilitarian moral rules. (Presented at Yale, 2/11/09.)
- Moral heuristics and biases, Presidential Address, Society for Judgment and Decision Making (SJDM), 11/19/07.
- Citizens as moralists. (Presented at Stanford GSB, 5/30/07.)
- Cognitive biases that support parochialism. (Presented at SJDM, 11/06.)
- Parochialism and approval voting, slides for SABE/IAREP talk and link to paper.
- Thinking about tax, slides for 9/27/05 Penn Colloquium, with link to papers.
- Thinking about global warming, slides for 11/12/04 Princeton meeting.
- Baron, J., & Gurmankin, A. D. (2003). Cost benefit analysis can increase trust in decision makers.
- Papers with Min Gong are here.
- My papers listed at Social Science Research Network (SSRN).
Articles made public only on the Web (here):
- Baron, J., & Li, Y. (2000, revised 2011). Notes on the use of R for psychology experiments and questionnaires. (pdf)
- Baron, J. (2013). Moral judgment: Acts, omissions, and rules.
- Prasad, P., & Baron, J. (1995). Measurement of gender-role attitudes, beliefs, and principles. (Contains survey.)
- Baron, J., Gurmankin, A. D., & Kunreuther, H. (2003). A comparative approach to protective behavior. (pdf)
- Baron, J., et al. (2002). Attitudes toward the ethics of paying subjects for risky experiments.
- Baron, J. (2002). Value trade-offs and the nature of utility: bias, inconsistency, protected values, and other problems. Prepared for conference on Behavioral Economics and Neoclassical Economics, American Institute for Economic Research, Great Barrington, MA, July, 2002.
- Baron, J. (2000). The effects of overgeneralization on public policy. Prepared for Experimental Methods Conference, Center for Basic Research in the Social Sciences, Harvard, Nov. 17-18, 2000. (Outline.)
- Lim, C. S., & Baron, J. (1997). Protected values in Malaysia, Singapore, and the United States.
- Baron, J., Neiderhiser, B., & Gandy, O. H. (1997). Perceptions and attributions of race differences in health risks.
- Eisenberg, A. E., Baron, J., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1996). Individual differences in risk aversion and anxiety.
- Chaitas, S., Solodkin, A, & Baron, J. (1995). Students' attitudes toward social dilemmas in Argentina, Mexico, and the United States
- Baron, J., Schulkin, J., & Kunreuther, H. (1990). Perceived uncertainty and the response to global warming.
- Baron, J., Laskey, K., and Brown, R. V. (1989). Going through the goop: An introduction to decision making. (Written for high-school students.)
Articles published or in press
- Baron, J. (1975). Stimuli and subjects in one-tailed tests. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 6, 608-610.
- Baron, J. & Treiman, R. (1980). Some problems in the study of differences in cognitive processes. Memory and Cognition, 8, 313-321.
- Galotti, K. M., Baron, J., & Sabini, J. (1986). Individual differences in syllogistic reasoning: deduction rules or mental models? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 115, 16-25.
- Baron, J., Badgio, P., & Gaskins, I. W. (1986). Cognitive style and its improvement: A normative approach. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Advances in the psychology of human intelligence, Vol. 3, pp. 173-220. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Baron, J. (1986). Tradeoffs among reasons for action. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 16, 173-195.
- Baron, J. (1987). An hypothesis about the training of intelligence. In D. N. Perkins, J. Lochhead, & J. Bishop (Eds.), Thinking: the second international conference, pp. 60-67. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. (scanned version)
- Frisch, D., & Baron, J. (1988). Ambiguity and rationality. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 1, 149-157.
- Baron, J., Beattie, J., & Hershey, J. C. (1988). Heuristics and biases in diagnostic reasoning: II. congruence, information, and certainty. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 42, 88-110.
- Baron, J., & Hershey, J. C. (1988). Outcome bias in decision evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 569-579.
- Baron, J. (1988). Utility, exchange, and commensurability. Journal of Thought, 23, 111-131.
- Ritov, I., & Baron, J. (1990). Reluctance to vaccinate: omission bias and ambiguity. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 3, 263-277. (Reprinted in C. Sunstein (Ed.), Behavioral Law and Economics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.)
- Baron, J. (1991). Beliefs about thinking. In J. F. Voss, D. N. Perkins, & J. W. Segal (Eds.), Informal reasoning and education, pp. 169-186. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Spranca, M., Minsk, E., & Baron, J. (1991). Omission and commission in judgment and choice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 76-105. (pdf)
- Baron, J. (1991). Beliefs about thinking. In J. F. Voss, D. N. Perkins, & J. W. Segal (Eds.), Informal reasoning and education, pp. 169–186. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
- Ritov, I., & Baron, J. (1992). Status-quo and omission bias. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 5, 49-61.
- Baron, J. (1992). The effect of normative beliefs on anticipated emotions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 320-330.
- Baron, J. (1993). Why teach thinking? - An essay. (Target article, commentary and reply not included here.) Applied Psychology: An International Review, 42, 191-237.
- Baron, J. & Jurney, J. (1993). Norms against voting for coerced reform. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 347-355
- Baron, J., Granato, L., Spranca, M., & Teubal, E. (1993). Decision making biases in children and early adolescents: Exploratory studies. Merrill Palmer Quarterly, 39, 23–47.
- Baron, J. (1993). Heuristics and biases in equity judgments: a utilitarian approach. In B. A. Mellers and J. Baron (Eds.), Psychological perspectives on justice: Theory and applications, pp. 109-137. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Baron, J. & Ritov, I. (1993). Intuitions about penalties and compensation in the context of tort law. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 7, 17-33.
- Baron, J., Gowda, R., & Kunreuther, H. (1993). Attitudes toward managing hazardous waste: What should be cleaned up and who should pay for it? Risk Analysis, 13, 183-192.
- Baron, J. & Ritov, I. (1994). Reference points and omission bias. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 59, 475-498.
- Baron, J. & Frisch, D. (1994). Ambiguous probabilities and the paradoxes of expected utility. In G. Wright & P. Ayton (Eds.), Subjective probability, pp. 273–294. Chichester, Sussex: Wiley.
- Baron, J. (1994). Nonconsequentialist decisions (with commentary and reply). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 17, 1-42.
- Beattie, J., Baron, J., Hershey, J. C., & Spranca, M. (1994). Determinants of decision attitude. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 7, 129-144. (scanned png images)
- Baron, J. (1995). Myside bias in thinking about abortion. Thinking and Reasoning, 1, 221-235. (pdf)
- Baron, J. (1995). Blind justice: Fairness to groups and the do-no-harm principle. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 8, 71-83. (pdf)
- Baron, J. (1995). A psychological view of moral intuition. Harvard Review of Philosophy, 5, 36-40.
- Beattie, J. & Baron, J. (1995). In-kind vs. out-of-kind penalties: preference and valuation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 1, 136-151. (pdf)
- Ritov, I., & Baron, J. (1995).
Outcome knowledge, regret,
and omission bias. Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes, 64, 119-127.
Baron, J. (1995). A theory of social decisions. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 25, 103–114.
- Baron, J. (1996). Norm-endorsement utilitarianism and the nature of utility. Economics and Philosophy, 12, 165-182.
- Baron, J. (1996). Do no harm. In D. M. Messick & A. E. Tenbrunsel (Eds.), Codes of conduct: Behavioral research into business ethics, pp. 197-213. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
- Baron, J., & Greene, J. (1996). Determinants of insensitivity to quantity in valuation of public goods: contribution, warm glow, budget constraints, availability, and prominence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 2, 107-125.
- Baron, J., & Maxwell, N. P. (1996). Cost of public goods affects willingness to pay for them. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 9, 173-183.
- Baron, J. (1997). Biases in the quantitative measurement of values for public decisions. Psychological Bulletin, 122, 72-88.
- Baron, J. (1997). Political action vs. voluntarism in social dilemmas and aid for the needy. Rationality and Society, 9, 307-326.
- Baron, J., & Spranca, M. (1997). Protected values. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 70, 1-16.
- Baron, J. (1997). Confusion of relative and absolute risk in valuation. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 14, 301-309.
- Baron, J. (1998). Trust: beliefs and morality. In A. Ben-Ner & L. Putterman (Eds.), Economics, values, and organization, pp. 408–418. Cambridge University Press.
- Ritov, I., & Baron, J. (1999). Protected values and omission bias. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 79, 79-94.
- Baron, J., & Siepmann, M. (2000). Using web questionnaires for judgment and decision making research. In M. H. Birnbaum (Ed.), "Psychological Experiments on the Internet" (New York: Academic Press).
- Baron, J., & Leshner, S. (2000). How serious are expressions of protected values. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 6, 183-194.
- Baron, J., Hershey, J. C., & Kunreuther, H. (2000). Determinants of priority for risk reduction: the role of worry. Risk Analysis, 20, 413-428.
- Baron, J. (2000). Measuring value tradeoffs: problems and some solutions. In Elke Weber, Jonathan Baron, and Graham Loomes (Eds.), Conflict and Tradeoffs in Decision making: Essays in Honor of Jane Beattie, pp. 231-259. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Baron, J. (2000). Can we use human judgments to determine the discount rate? Risk Analsysis, 20, 861-868.
- Greene, J., & Baron, J. (2000). Intuitions about declining marginal utility. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 14, 243-255.
- Baron, J., Wu, Z., Brennan, D. J., Weeks C., and Ubel, P. A., (2001). Analog scale, ratio judgment and person trade-off as utility measures: biases and their correction. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 14, 17-34.
- Baron, J., & Ubel, P. A. (2001). The desire to revise a priority list based on cost-effectiveness: The role of the prominence effect and distorted utility judgments. Medical Decision Making, 21, 278-287. ohp1-4
- Baron, J. (2001). Confusion of group-interest and self-interest in parochial cooperation on behalf of a group. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 45, 283-296.
- Royzman, E. B., & Baron, J. (2002). The preference for indirect harm. Social Justice Research, 15, 165-184. (pdf)
- Barron, J., & Ubel, P. A. (2002). Types of inconsistency in health-state utility judgments. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 89, 1100-1118.
- Baron, J. (2003). Value analysis of political behavior - self-interested : moralistic :: altruistic : moral. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 151, 1135-1167.
- Baron, J., & Kemp, S. (2004). Support for trade restrictions, attitudes, and understanding of comparative advantage. Journal of Economic Psychology, 25, 565-580.
- Baron, J. & Ritov, I. (2004). Omission bias, individual differences, and normality. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 94, 74-85.
- Gurmankin Levy, A., & Baron, J. (2005). How bad is a 10% chance of losing a toe? Judgments of probabilistic conditions by doctors and laypeople. Memory and Cognition, 33, 1399-1406.
- Baron, J. (2006). Thinking about global warming. Climatic Change (special issue on "The psychology of long term risk" edited by A. Todorov and M. Oppenheimer), 77, 137-150.
- Baron, J., Bazerman, M. H., & Shonk, K. (2006). Enlarging the societal pie through wise legislation: A psychological perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 123-132.
- Baron, J., & Ritov, I. (2009). The role of probability of detection in judgments of punishment. Journal of Legal Analysis, 2, 553-590.
- Baron, J., & Ritov. I. (2009). Protected values and omission bias as deontological judgments. In D. M. Bartels, C. W. Bauman, L. J. Skitka, & D. L. Medin (Eds.), Moral Judgment and decision making, Vol. 50 in B. H. Ross (series editor), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, pp. 133–167. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
- Baron, J. (2009). Belief overkill in political judgments. Informal Logic, 29, 368-378.
- Baron, J., & Szymanska, E. (2010). Heuristics and biases in charity. In D. Oppenheimer & C. Olivola (Eds). The science of giving: Experimental approaches to the study of charity, pp. 215–236. New York: Taylor and Francis. (slides)
- Baron, J. (2012). Parochialism as a result of cognitive biases. In R. Goodman, D. Jinks, & A. K. Woods (Eds.), Understanding social action, promoting human rights, pp. 203–243. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Baron, J., Ritov, I., & Greene, J.D. (2012) The duty to support nationalistic policies. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. 26, 128-138.
- Baron, J., Gürçay, B., Moore, A. B., & Starcke, K. (2012). Use of a Rasch model to predict response times to utilitarian moral dilemmas. Synthese (special issue on Psychological Models of (Ir)rationality and Decision Making, edited by C. Witteman & W. van der Hoek), 189, Supplement 1, 107-117.
- Baron, J. (2012). The point of normative models in judgment and decision making (comment). Frontiers in Cognitive Science. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00577
- Baron, J., Scott, S., Fincher, K., & Metz, S. E. (2015). Why does the Cognitive Reflection Test (sometimes) predict utilitarian moral judgment (and other things)? Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 4(3), 265-284.
- Baron, J. (2015). Citizenship and morality.
Current Opinion in Psychology, 6, 6-9.
- Baron, J. (2016). A welfarist approach to manipulation. Journal of Marketing Behavior, 1 283-291. (Complete issue with Sunstein paper and others)
- Gürçay, B., & Baron, J. (2016, online). Challenges for the sequential two-systems model of moral judgment. Thinking and Reasoning.
