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Alex Genevsky

@genevsky.bsky.social

Brains, affect, and decision making - in various permutations

Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Social Credit Systems promise fairness and efficiency but we find that they can reinforce existing inequalities and bias our perceptions in lasting ways

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Across three preregistered experiments, we find that when SCS scores are made available: 1) Overall trust behavior decreases 2) Cooperation between individuals decreases 3) And strikingly, when people with lower scores behave identically to others they are judged more harshly and rewarded less

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

Despite the clear privacy and moral issue, the justification for SCS systems is that transparency leads to trust and encourages interactions. But what if the opposite is true?

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

It sounds like dystopian fiction but Social Credit Scores are a reality for millions of people around the world and are becoming increasingly prevalent, even in western societies.

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

What happens when people are judged by a single number based on their social status, network, and behavior? In a new paper we explore how the availability of Social Credit Scores impacts trust, cooperation, and perceptions of others. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

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Reposted by Alex Genevsky

PNAS Nexus @pnasnexus.org · 05/03/2025

Neuroimaging of activity in the emotional centers of the brain of a group of as few as 20 people can be broadly predictive of choices made by large groups of people, and thus can be used to improve market forecasting, according to a study. In PNAS Nexus: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

(1) Brain, behavioral, and demographic data were collected in laboratory samples. (2). Behavior and demographic data were collected in constructed internet markets. (3). Internet markets were divided into more and less representative markets based on demographic match to the laboratory samples. (4) Neural and behavioral data in laboratory samples were used to forecast behavioral data in more and less representative market samples. (5) Neural and behavioral model features were contrasted in more and less representative market samples.

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Additionally, robustness checks suggest that relatively small samples (n<30) are able to support accurate neural forecasts

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Using brain measures we are thus able to access a more universal index of preference that results in improved accuracy of market-level forecasts.

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

In the experiments, we vary the representativeness of the laboratory sample to the market of interest. We find that while behavioral forecasts are significantly impacted by sample/market similarity, neural forecasts are not.

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

We find these more widely shared signals primarily in early affective responses measured in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc).

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

In this paper we show that the decision-making process can be broken down into components, some of which are more widely shared across individuals then others. Neural measures of the shared components consequently lead to more accurate aggregate level forecasts.

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Previous research on Neuroforecasting has shown that neural activity collected from a small sample in the laboratory can improve forecasts of real-world market preferences. But what has been less clear is how this is happening.

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Our latest paper on #Neuroforecasting is out at @pnasnexus.org (w/ Brian Knutson and Lester Tong) A short 🧵 tinyurl.com/e4279exp

academic.oup.com

Neuroforecasting reveals generalizable components of choice

Abstract. Accurate forecasts of population-level behavior critically inform institutional choices and public policy. While neuroforecasting research sugges

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Alex Genevsky @genevsky.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Link to paper: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

academic.oup.com

Neuroforecasting reveals generalizable components of choice

Abstract. Accurate forecasts of population-level behavior critically inform institutional choices and public policy. While neuroforecasting research sugges

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