A Brief History of Spudm or How Europe Took off on Behavioural Decision Research

Abstract

A major international forum for behavioral decision research is the biennial conference on Subjective Probability, Utility and Decision Making. ‘sPUDM’ began in Hamburg on April 10–12, 1969, as a Research Conference on Subjective Probability, and it adopted its current name only at the third conference, in 1971 at London’s Brunei University in Uxbridge. Actually SPUDM was just another expression of the big wave of research interests in decision models, methods and processes, that rolled on in the 1950s and 1960s. But SPUDM (originally) was a distinctly European and a mostly psychological response to the growing international literature. In this chapter a description is given of SPUDM’s inception around 1969 and its historical development since then, which is currently manifested in a large and productive meeting every two years (see Note 1). The important role of Ward Edwards’ decision-theoretic reviews in the 1950s and 1960s is indicated, as are the roles of Bruno De Finetti and Masanao Toda. SPUDM’s expansion and professional organization are discussed, and its substantive developments between 1969 and 1997 are briefly sketched. The paper ends with a biographical note on the decision-theoretic roots of Edwards himself.