From Homo Economicus to Homo Sapiens

From Homo Economicus to Homo Sapiens

R esponding to a request for a forecast is especially tricky for someone like me, who specializes in other people’s biases. Research in psychology suggests that certain biases are very likely to creep into my forecasts about the future of economics (or anything else). 1. Optimism (and wishful thinking). We all tend to be optimistic about the future. On the first day of my MBA class on decision-...

Homo economicus?

The current financial and economic crisis is the worst since the stock-market crash of 1929. As with every complex phenomenon, a mixture of causes have been put forward: the housing-market bubble, risky mortgage loans, ‘toxic’ financial products, high personal and corporate debts, inaccurate credit ratings, and much more. The shockwaves have spread so rapidly and hit so hard that entire banking...

From Neanderthal to Homo sapiens

Project background During the course of evolution, the human brain has undergone tremendous expansion. This has led to the development of complex neurocircuits of unmatched complexity, highly social behaviour, expanded language use and cognitive superiority. A small number of infants, however, are born with significantly smaller brains, a condition called primary microcephaly (PM). Infants with...

Homo Socialis and Homo Sapiens

The assumption that individuals are behaving rationally can, at times, usefully constrain predictions of individual and collective behavior. However, success in predicting human and group behavior will often require relaxing this assumption of rationality, instead employing evolutionary, neural, and cognitive constraints. One particularly important form of neural and cognitive constraint is tha...

Homo Sapiens