Cognitive Biases and Decision-Making in the COVID-19 Crisis

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic, the reaction of populations and the response of governments in various countries raise many questions. Cognitive science can help us understand the biases that affect these reactions, and the apparent irrationality of some of them.

In this interactive session, Professor Olivier Sibony will use examples drawn from the response to the pandemic in various countries to illustrate several cognitive biases. The discussion will highlight the dangers that the same cognitive biases present for executives in their strategic decisions, and the lessons they can draw to avoid them.

Olivier Sibony is a writer, educator and consultant specializing in Strategy, strategic decision making and the organization of decision processes.

From 1991 to 2015, Olivier was a consultant, Partner and Director in the Paris, New York and Brussels offices of McKinsey & Company. Among other roles, he served as global leader of the Corporate Strategy Practice, as a European leader of the Consumer sector, and as a member of the Firm’s global Partner Review Committee.

From an industry sector perspective, he has extensive experience in Consumer Packaged Goods, Luxury Goods, Retail, and Private Equity.