Philosophy
Are economic crises the result of poorly thought out financial institutional design, or are they the natural consequence of having the kinds of minds we have? To try to get to the bottom of this question, psychologist Laurie Santos and economist Keith Chen have been studying capuchin monkeys in their Yale lab.
The idea is to try to understand how a bunch of monkeys with no training in economics (or even language) respond to different scenarios, and then compare the results to those obtained from human subjects.
The results, surprise surprise, reveal that monkeys mirror human irrationality almost perfectly, probably because both species base their decisions on two main cognitive biases: relative evaluation and loss aversion.
Laurie Santos explains these fascinating findings in the following TEDTalk presentation:
For a bit more on this research, check out this nice article from the Freakonomics folks.
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- Frans De Waal - Moral Behavior In Animals
As you probably know, one of the most popular arguments for the existence of God is known as the moral argument. There are variations on the theme, but one of the general ideas is that the human moral sense cannot be successfully explained by mindless...
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Until this week, I have been working under the assumption that my blog readership was made up entirely of intelligent and curious people, but now that scientists have figured out Campbell's monkeys have a rich and sophisticated language and vocabulary,...
- Harvard Scientist Run Amuck?
"In Harvard Lab Inquiry, a Raid and a 3-Year Wait" by Nicholas Wade Augyst 13th, 2010 The New York Times Marc Hauser’s academic career was soaring when suddenly, three years ago, Harvard authorities raided his laboratory and confiscated computers...
- Sea-monkeys... No Shrimps At Bozeman Astronomy Day
[Click to enlarge] Remember these curiosities...a big hit now. "Sea Monkey family viewed by 1,000 people at Bozeman Astronomy Day" A family of tiny Sea Monkeys were the stars of the show at Bozeman, Montana's Astronomy Day, where the tiny "aliens"...
- Antanas Mockus--update
Juan Manuel Santos "Colombia election surprise: Juan Manuel Santos routs Antanas Mockus" Polls had suggested that upstart Antanas Mockus was in a dead heat with Juan Manuel Santos in the Colombia presidential election. But Mr. Santos won the first round...
Philosophy
Laurie Santos - Your Financial Advisor Might As Well Be a Monkey
Are economic crises the result of poorly thought out financial institutional design, or are they the natural consequence of having the kinds of minds we have? To try to get to the bottom of this question, psychologist Laurie Santos and economist Keith Chen have been studying capuchin monkeys in their Yale lab.The idea is to try to understand how a bunch of monkeys with no training in economics (or even language) respond to different scenarios, and then compare the results to those obtained from human subjects.
The results, surprise surprise, reveal that monkeys mirror human irrationality almost perfectly, probably because both species base their decisions on two main cognitive biases: relative evaluation and loss aversion.
Laurie Santos explains these fascinating findings in the following TEDTalk presentation:
For a bit more on this research, check out this nice article from the Freakonomics folks.
.
- Frans De Waal - Moral Behavior In Animals
As you probably know, one of the most popular arguments for the existence of God is known as the moral argument. There are variations on the theme, but one of the general ideas is that the human moral sense cannot be successfully explained by mindless...
- Monkey Threatdown!
Until this week, I have been working under the assumption that my blog readership was made up entirely of intelligent and curious people, but now that scientists have figured out Campbell's monkeys have a rich and sophisticated language and vocabulary,...
- Harvard Scientist Run Amuck?
"In Harvard Lab Inquiry, a Raid and a 3-Year Wait" by Nicholas Wade Augyst 13th, 2010 The New York Times Marc Hauser’s academic career was soaring when suddenly, three years ago, Harvard authorities raided his laboratory and confiscated computers...
- Sea-monkeys... No Shrimps At Bozeman Astronomy Day
[Click to enlarge] Remember these curiosities...a big hit now. "Sea Monkey family viewed by 1,000 people at Bozeman Astronomy Day" A family of tiny Sea Monkeys were the stars of the show at Bozeman, Montana's Astronomy Day, where the tiny "aliens"...
- Antanas Mockus--update
Juan Manuel Santos "Colombia election surprise: Juan Manuel Santos routs Antanas Mockus" Polls had suggested that upstart Antanas Mockus was in a dead heat with Juan Manuel Santos in the Colombia presidential election. But Mr. Santos won the first round...