Modeling Sociocultural Influences on Decision Making

In our increasingly globally interconnected world, understanding and appreciating the sociocultural context within which individuals make their decisions is critical to developing successful partnerships. The collection of chapters in this volume illustrates how advances in information and social media technologies, as well as modeling and simulation tools, combined with the social sciences, can be leveraged to better understand how sociocultural context influences decision making. The chapters in this volume were contributed by leading experts from academia, industry, and government and provide:Insights into cross-cultural decision making based on recent international events, with grounding in an historical contextDiscussions of cutting-edge modeling techniques used today by professionals across multiple organizations and agenciesDescriptions of specific cross-cultural decision making tools designed for use by laypeople and professionals Case studies on the role of cross-cultural decision making grounded in current events and (in many cases) military applications.

"The structure of the book is excellent and gives a framework for organizing ideas in this complex area. Hopefully books like this will by a catalyst for more work in the area and a further maturation of the models and what we can use them for."— Rudolph Darken, Naval Postgraduate School, USA"I think this book will impact current and future work in the areas that form the intersection of applied social science, computer science, and sociocultural methods. It provides an integrated stance on very complex social and computational issues while retaining a sense for practical application. The book offers a nice blend of theoretical, methodological, and application-focused chapters that will aid a reader in learning about sociocultural topics and applying cutting-edge methods to the real-world issues. The editors have successfully compiled a diverse set of experts to explore very challenging issues that have very real implications for the military, and more broadly, the global business and social domains."— Joseph B. Lyons, Air Force Research Laboratory, USA

Joseph V. Cohn, PhD, earned his BS in biology from the University of Illinois–UrbanaChampaign in 1993. He earned his PhD in neuroscience from Brandeis University in 1998.He has coauthored more than 100 publications and presented talks to national and internationalprofessional conferences on a host of topics, ranging from foundational neuroscienceto the nature of technical innovation. He has coedited a three-volume book seriesfocusing on all aspects of training system development and a single-volume book onenhancing human performance in high-risk environments. He has received industry andprofessional society awards for his research across the spectrum of the human performanceand biomedical sciences. He cochaired the Applied Human Factors and ErgonomicsAssociation’s Cross-Cultural Decision Making Conference from 2013 to 2015 and is a fellowof the American Psychological Association and the Society of Military Psychologists,as well as an associate fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association.Sae Schatz, PhD, is an applied human-systems researcher, learning science professional,and cognitive scientist. She has headed an array of applied research efforts, authored morethan 50 peer-reviewed scholarly publications, led the development of three military textbooks,and received industry awards for both her publications and her research efforts.Schatz cochairs the Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics Association’s Cross-CulturalDecision Making Conference (2013–), is a service principal for the Interservice/IndustryTraining, Simulation and Education Conference (2015–), and supports international scienceand technology working groups associated with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,Partnership for Peace, and The Technical Cooperation Program. Schatz also maintainsclose ties