Behavioural Economics
Psychology, neuroscience, and the human side of economics
- Publisher
- Icon Books
- Initial publish date
- Jan 2021
- Category
- Social Psychology
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781785786440
- Publish Date
- Jan 2021
- List Price
- $22.5
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Description
The controversial science that claims to have revolutionised economics.
For centuries, economics was dominated by the idea that we are rational individuals who optimise our own 'utility'. Then, in the 1970s, psychologists demonstrated that the reality is a lot messier. We don't really know what our utility is, and we care about people other than ourselves. We are susceptible to external nudges. And far from being perfectly rational we are prone to 'cognitive biases' with complex effects on decision-making, such as forgetting to prepare for retirement.
David Orrell explores the findings from psychology and neuroscience that are shaking up economics - and that are being exploited by policy-makers and marketers alike, to shape everything from how we shop for food, to how we tackle societal happiness or climate change. Finally, he asks: is behavioural economics a scientific revolution, or just a scientific form of marketing?
About the author
Contributor Notes
David Orrell is a scientist and writer of books on science and economics. His latest books are Economyths: 11 Ways Economics Gets It Wrong (Icon Books, 2017), and Quantum Economics: The New Science of Money (Icon Books, 2018).
Other titles by
A Brief History of Money
4000 Years of Markets, Currencies, Debt and Crisis
Quantum Economics
The New Science of Money
The Money Formula
Dodgy Finance, Pseudo Science, and How Mathematicians Took Over the Markets
The Other Side of the Coin
The Emerging Vision of Economics and Our Place in the World