University of California - San Diego

The University of California, San Diego and American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) are partnering to create the first-ever behavioral research laboratory.  In the lab, researchers from UC San Diego, Stanford University and AUAF will conduct controlled studies of economic decision-making, social behavior, and market behavior.

The last 20 years have seen remarkable progress in techniques to study behavior in social and market environments. These techniques allow the researcher a degree of precision and control over the environment that cannot be attained in observational studies. In the ‘lab-to-field’ movement, lab methodology is taken to new populations to study economic or social behavior outside of the standard western college student subject pool. These research methods have yet to be applied to key questions of the social and psychological legacies of conflict, reconstruction of civil society, governance strengthening, and peace building.

AUAF is uniquely positioned, as the premier institution in the region, to provide valuable research on important questions. UC San Diego is a leading research institution; its researchers have conducted multiple successful research projects in Afghanistan. In developing a collaborative research laboratory, the two institutions bring combined expertise to bear on relevant questions of broad interest to social science.

 The National Science Foundation has recommended funding for the first project to take place in the lab (approval pending).