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Neuroeconomics: Why Economics Needs Brains

Year: 2004

Type: article

Abstract: Neuroeconomics uses knowledge about brain mechanisms to inform economic theory. It opens up the “black box” of the brain, much as organizational economics opened up the theory of the firm. Neuroscientists use many tools—including brain imaging, behavior of patients with brain damage, animal behavior and recording single neuron activity. The key insight for economics is that the brain is composed of multiple systems which interact. Controlled systems (“executive function”) interrupt automatic ones. Brain evidence complicates standard assumptions about basic preference, to include homeostasis and other kinds of state‐dependence, and shows emotional activation in ambiguous choice and strategic interaction.

Source: Scandinavian Journal of Economics

DOI: 10.1111/j.0347-0520.2004.00377.x

Authors: Colin F. Camerer, George Loewenstein, Drazen Prelec

Institutions: California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics

Subfield: General Decision Sciences

Field: Decision Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W2168994442

FWCI: 7.372

Cites: 82

Cited by: 346

Related to: 10