BSidesLV 2017

How does the science of human perception and decision making influence the security sector? How can we use information about how people make decisions to create more successful security professionals? In the 1970s, “fringe” psychologists began to question the phenomenon of decision making, seeking to understand the mechanism by which individuals will make seemingly unfathomable choices in the face of obvious deterrents. When one has any personal stake in a situation (e.g. what to eat for dinner or who to vote for) our ability to take stock and react reasonably becomes nearly non-existent.

There are numerous academic studies on decision-making and perception whose insights have been applied to various industries over the years with surprising success. Why do we make unintelligent choices? Why are we are so overwhelmingly deficient at risk assessment? This session will explore how the science of decision making applies to the security sector, empowering attendees to walk away with a better understanding of how these concepts can be leveraged to build more robust and useful security tools, as well as more successful training models. Supported by the research of Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, I will introduce these techniques and discuss how they can help security in several practical ways.