Behavioral Economics Activities

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Identify common cognitive biases they may experience while making financial decisions using a fun, out-of-their seats whole-class race challenge

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Explore their experiences and values related to money
• Consider how individual values and circumstances impact people’s financial decisions

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate the effect of cognitive biases in making decisions
• Discuss the process of making decisions that involve loss aversion and/or the sunk cost fallacy

[This activity has no answer key]

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Play game that elicits various emotions when we gain, lose, or miss out on investment opportunities
• Reflect on the psychology behind some of the investment decisions we make

You can find the Spanish version(s) of student materials linked in the activity under "Materials & Prep".

In this activity, students will be able to: 

• Explore the behavior and emotions behind the financial decisions they make

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Examine a bad financial habit of theirs that they would like to change 
• Understand the Habit Cycle as described by Charles Duhigg in his book, The Power of Habit
• Create and execute a plan to help them change their bad financial habit
• Reflect on how the Habit Cycle empowers them to change their habits 

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Identify advertisements that use the cognitive biases FOMO and Herd Mentality
• Analyze how FOMO and Herd Mentality influence consumers
• Create their own advertisement using FOMO and Herd Mentality

[This activity has no answer key]

In this activity, students will be able to: 

• Explain what Hedonic Adaptation is and how it can affect our personal finances
• Create a PSA on a social media platform of their choice 
• Identify strategies to counteract the effect of Hedonic Adaptation

[This activity has no answer key]

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Make decisions that involve different levels of risk and loss

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate and analyze the Public Goods Dilemma
• Discuss incentives and decision making based on individual benefit vs. group benefit

In this activity, students will be able to:

• Identify marketing tactics and cognitive biases used in social media that can influence consumers
• Work in groups to create an engaging social media marketing strategy
• Pitch their social media marketing strategy to the class
• Discuss their awareness of cognitive biases and how they influence consumer behavior

[This activity has no answer key]