About this course: We make thousands of decisions every day. Do I cross the road now, or wait for the oncoming truck to pass? Should I eat fries or a salad for lunch? How much should I tip the cab driver? We usually make these decisions with almost no thought, using what psychologists call “heuristics” – rules of thumb that enable us to navigate our lives. Without these mental shortcuts, we would be paralyzed by the multitude of daily choices. But in certain circumstances, these shortcuts lead to predictable errors – predictable, that is, if we know what to watch out for. Did you know, for example, that we are naturally biased towards selling investments that are doing well for us, but holding on to those that are doing poorly? Or that we often select sub-optimal insurance payment plans, and routinely purchase insurance that we don’t even need? And why do so many of us fail to enroll in our employer’s corporate retirement plans, even when the employer offers to match our contributions? Behavioral finance is the study of these and dozens of other financial decision-making errors that can be avoided, if we are familiar with the biases that cause them. In this course, we examine these predictable errors, and discover where we are most susceptible to them. This course is intended to guide participants towards better financial choices. Learn how to improve your spending, saving, and investing decisions for the future.
Who is this class for: This course is intended for anyone who has taken at least one course in economics either in high school or in college, and is interested in how our innate biases affect our financial decision-making.
Taught by: Emma Rasiel, Associate Chair and Professor
Economics
| Language | English, Subtitles: Portuguese (Brazilian) |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.
Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.
Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.
I hope the lecture is more connected to the reading, but with more different examples to fully explain those concepts. Also, it would be great if professors can help us differentiate those similar concepts in the lecture. Lastly, please add feedback of correct answers and explanation after quize questions! Thank you!
It was an awesome experience and the course was really informative and has helped me in understanding the concepts of Behavioral Finance. I Thank the faculty of the Duke University as well as the Coursera team for offering this course.
Great course! Extremely practical and with a balanced view of its concepts (not too dogmatic). Also, the quizzes were challenging enough to keep me interested.
Coursera provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.
Great course! It allows to understand the twisted logic that run in our heads. Helps to establish the balance between probabilistic truth and illusions that infect our decision-making. Thanks a lot!