Redesigning the Future of Experiential Learning

In response to the call for more work-ready graduates, many academic programs have looked toward experiential learning to close the gap between theory and practice. Rather than sending students off campus, we have chosen instead to create an on-campus experience consisting of a series of two credit courses. Each course is the outcome of a collaborative process that relies on the expertise and experience of industry professionals who help develop and ultimately deliver a customized learning experience. These activity-based, guided learning experiences provide an inside look at how core knowledge can be applied to real work processes and problems

Moral Attributes In A Dictator Game

This paper investigates whether or not the moral factors captured in an emotional intelligence assessment matter in the economic decisions made by subjects in a dictator game.  We find a statistically significant relationship between the amount of the dictator’s contribution and a few of the factors of the Intrapersonal Dimension of the EQ-i. We also find a significant relationship between dictator contributions and an adjusted EQ-i score, measures of independence, know-my-own and empathy. Our results may be relevant to researchers interested in understanding the preference set of economic decision-makers.  Moreover, for those interested in refining experimental design protocols, we show the EQ-i to be a useful resource to control for a few of the moral attributes Levitt et al. (2006) suggest are so very important in understanding laboratory and field experiments.

Of Altruists and Thieves

We replicate List's [2007] baseline dictator game (DG) with subjects earning their endowment, evaluate the effect of decreasing the stakes of the DG, conduct a DG in which taking is the only option, measure dictators’ ex post perceptions, and impose a social distance framing effect. Dictator behavior is influenced when they earn their endowment and when the stakes of the game are changed, but not when a social distance framing effect is imposed. Our results suggest that dictators have been nudged into demonstrating altruistic tendencies in the standard DG, just as our taking treatment has nudged dictators to become thieves.