What neuroeconomics tells us about money and the brain

This comprehensive newspaper article includes an overview of how neuroeconomics has come about and interviews the thought leaders in the field. It's from last year but touches on many of the issues discussed in the stimulating seminar on the topic in Geary yesterday. In the later half of the article limbic activation reactions due to evolved concerns over dominance and reciprocation are discussed, as are dual-systems approach and their importance for the case for neuroeconomics. The benefits of considering brain activity patterns in those systems for real world decision-making and policy formation are also discussed, as are the ways in which the brain can be tricked into trust through the use of oxytocin. This is rather similar to Ken's argument for the way in which THC the active ingredient in cannabis may induce trust in ultimatum game, though perhaps with less ethical complications. For anyone interested in oxytocin products, for research purposes of course, I recommend 'Liquidtrust.co.uk'.

Concerns over the benefits of neuroeconomics and the possible experimental confounds are also touched on. At one point it is remarked that physicists began studying the stars then transformed the discipline through the study of sub-atomic particles and that economics is doing the same through the move towards the brain. Neuroeconomists self-aggrandising, never!

Mind Games