People

Policy solutions that account for psychological and physiological functioning are best placed to make a difference for disadvantaged people. Through our People program, Life Course Centre researchers are investigating the cognitive processes of individuals to determine how they apply their human capabilities, and how their decision-making processes can be leveraged to reduce and prevent disadvantage. Contemporary neuroscience has identified that patterns of disadvantage affect neurocognitive pathways, producing distinct characteristics in the behaviours, reactions, and responses of people experiencing disadvantage that differ from others. We are leveraging this emerging knowledge to specifically explore the decision-making of people in disadvantaged circumstances.

This research has its origins in the social sciences of neuroeconomics, behavioural economics, social cognition, neurocriminology and systems theory. By triangulating social science methods like social surveys with the insights, self-measurements and experimental techniques of psychology and neuroscience, we are driving a new cognitive science approach to overcoming disadvantage and promoting personal agency.