Behavioral Economics

Essential Reads Chosen by the editors

The Science of Changing Cultural Habits – Money, Food, Alcohol

By Stanton Peele on March 9, 2010 in Addiction in Society

Efforts to change behavior culture-wide usually involve admonitions and warnings. These are ineffective. Instead, we must pursue the science of cultural change. Read More

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Optimism, Pessimism, Possumism: What Precious, Hurt Locker, Avatar, climate crisis and overflowing toilets have in common.

By Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D. on March 9, 2010 in Ambigamy

0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false What do Precious, Hurt Locker, Avatar, Food Inc. climate crisis and, overflowing toilets have in common? They each present us with three options for how to respond: Mobilize to correct the problem, accept the problem as uncorrectable, or assume the problem doesn't exist. In other words, optimism that we can solve a problem, pessimism that we can, and possumism (playing possum), hoping that the problem isn't real. Each has its place. Read More
Measuring Faces: Trustworthiness and Facial Features

By Daniel R. Hawes on March 9, 2010 in Evolved Primate

It seems odd, but stable facial cues, such as the width-height ratio of a man's face, may be decent predictors of his trustworthiness. Less strange is that we apparently use face-width when intuitively judging a strangers' trustworthiness... Read More
The Science of Changing Cultural Habits – Money, Food, Alcohol

By Stanton Peele on March 9, 2010 in Addiction in Society

Efforts to change behavior culture-wide usually involve admonitions and warnings. These are ineffective. Instead, we must pursue the science of cultural change. Read More
Meet Professor Ridgway

By Nancy Ridgway, PhD on March 9, 2010 in Compulsive Consumers

Hello Everyone - this is my first blog for Psychology Today. I am very excited to get to know you and also to share my research with you. I am a Texan (from Austin) and I went to the University of Texas at Austin for all of my degrees (go Longhorns!). I also went to high school in Austin and met my husband during high school. We have been married 35 years. Read More
You Get No Respect? We Can Fix That!

By Steve Booth-Butterfield, Ed.D. on March 8, 2010 in Persuade Me

Everyone else thinks you're too young or inexperienced and won't listen. Here's how to solve that problem. Read More
Rich People Are Greedy

By Brad Klontz, Psy.D. on March 7, 2010 in Mind Over Money

Do you hate rich people? Come on, be honest. Rich people are greedy and shallow. They get rich by taking advantage of others. They are miserly and selfish. Money is their god. They don't really care about the poor or less fortunate. Deep down they are not really happy anyway. Read More
Our Debt! What has government borrowed on your behalf?

By John Nofsinger, Ph.D. on March 6, 2010 in Mind on My Money

What does a trillion dollars really mean to you? How much are the debt and unfunded liabilities of all levels of government? What is your portion? Read More
Money and stuff create different beliefs about fairness.

By Art Markman, Ph.D. on March 5, 2010 in Ulterior Motives

Fairness matters a lot to us. From a young age, children complain about inequalities with the chant, "That's not fair." Debates about public services by the government focus on whether particular programs are treating taxpayers and citizens fairly. People's happiness at their jobs is influenced by whether they feel like they are being treated fairly at work.
Part of what complicates the ability to treat others fairly is that what people may consider to be fair may change with circumstance. Read More
Don't Know Where The Time Went? (You'll) Guess You Were Having Fun...

By Daniel R. Hawes on March 4, 2010 in Evolved Primate

We all know the feeling that time flies, when we're having fun. Turns out, this also works in the other direction... Read More
Fever

By Steve Booth-Butterfield, Ed.D. on March 3, 2010 in Persuade Me

When they doubt Science give them Fever with Persuasion Read More
Curse of the $8 Blanket

By William Poundstone on March 3, 2010 in Priceless

How can you run a business when customers hate you? Airlines are trying to figure that out. The real problem may not be the airlnes but human nature. Read More
Mach the Knife

By Steve Booth-Butterfield, Ed.D. on March 1, 2010 in Persuade Me

Machiavelli is all things dangerous, corrupt, and soulless . . . if you read the academic literature. But if you read Mach the Knife himself, he might be different. Read More
Foresight Key to Top Leadership

By Steven Reiss, Ph.D. on February 27, 2010 in Who We Are

In the years following 9-11 the economy recovered nicely. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan kept interest rates very low, credit was cheap, and cheap money was fueling hot real estate and stock markets. Japan, still struggling from its real estate bust more than a decade ago, had low interest rates for so long people borrowed yen to buy U.S. stocks. Read More
Do We Make Decisions, or Do Our Decisions Make Us?

By James Stein, Ph.D. on February 26, 2010 in You Are What You Decide

I met Dick at a party some two decades ago, and we became fast friends, motivated in part by the fact that we are both tennis addicts. We play several times a week, and often discuss tennis - and other matters. Read More
Forever Green, Forget the Price

By Steve Booth-Butterfield, Ed.D. on February 24, 2010 in Persuade Me

People will believe anything if you tell them it is Green and Hot. Read More
Your perception of your future self affects how you value future outcomes

By Art Markman, Ph.D. on February 23, 2010 in Ulterior Motives

Many choices in life reflect a tradeoff between the value of things in the present and in the future. For example, if I buy a new computer today, I get to use that new computer now, but undoubtedly a better one will come out a year from now that will be nicer than the one I just bought. Similarly, if I invest money in the stock market, I am trading the value of that money to me now for the hope that it will be worth a larger amount in the future.
Clearly, some option in the future has to be more valuable than the option available in the present in order for us to wait for it. But how much better does the future have to be in order for us to wait? Read More
When We Want Something More Although We Like it Less

By Daniel R. Hawes on February 22, 2010 in Evolved Primate

Wanting something and liking something are two seperate things, and it is not uncommon that people develop strong "wants", or "must haves" for things they don't particularly like.
Indeed, it is possible that certain events increase our want for an object, while simultaneously decreasing how much we actually like the object. According to a recent research report this can happen in particular, when things become seemingly hard to obtain: When something we've tried to obtain becomes hard to get, we want it more. When we do manage to obtain it, however, we like it less... Read More
Bad Science is Good Persuasion . . . for Awhile

By Steve Booth-Butterfield, Ed.D. on February 22, 2010 in Persuade Me

Consider the difference between Science and Persuasion and what happens when you mix them. Read More
How World Peace Is Possible

By Alex Lickerman, M.D. on February 22, 2010 in Happiness in this World

When I was in grammar school learning about World War II, I remember thinking how grateful I was that society had finally matured to the point in the intervening years that war no longer ever broke out. Today I can hardly remember what bizarre thought process led me to conclude that people had actually become less barbaric with time. I do remember I also believed racial prejudice had died out decades ago and that the pronouncement of guilt or innocence by our justice system reflected actual guilt or innocence. Read More
One Attack Missing in the Assault on Tiger

By Susan Newman, Ph.D. on February 21, 2010 in Singletons

It's refreshing that focus on Tiger's only child status as a root cause of Tiger's actions has been absent. Read More

Behavioral Economics Blogs

Baffled by Numbers
Navigating information towards better health decisions
By Talya Miron-Shatz, Ph.D.
Evolved Primate
Identity, decision making and human behavior from an integrated social science perspective.
By Daniel R. Hawes
Mind Over Money
Overcoming the money disorders that threaten our financial health
By Brad Klontz, Psy.D.
My Mother, My Father, My Money
Money and its loaded issues.
By Simon Y. Feuerman, Psy.D., L.C.S.W.
Persuade Me
How to argue your point.
By Steve Booth-Butterfield, Ed.D.
Priceless
The myth of fair value--and how to take advantage of it.
By William Poundstone
The Why Behind the Buy
Understanding consumerism and why we buy.
By Kit Yarrow, Ph.D.

Behavioral Economics Basics

Why do we often think we know what we want, only to be disappointed with our purchases and choices? Behavioral economics studies just how irrational we humans can be.

Go to the Behavioral Economics Basics page for more on Behavioral Economics including:

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The Expectations Trap

Why we're conditioned to blame our partners for our unhappiness.