Those with a passing familiarity with behavioural economics will have heard of “loss aversion”: as described by Tversky and Kahneman, it’s the idea that losses have twice as powerful an effect psychologically as gains. No surprise then to come across an article, Out Of The Loop, while leafing through the ESRC’s “Britain in 2015” magazine, with theContinue reading ““To be thus is nothing; But to be safely thus …” Loss aversion and the human cost of economic cycles”
Tag Archives: behavioural economics
StickK: Odysseus on an electronic mast
I came across this site via a behavourial economist, Dr. Ivo Vlaev (thanks!), who was a co-collaborator on a rather large BE-influenced study I’ve been helping out on over the last year. It’s one of the many sites out there using BE principles to, it is hoped, help empower people to do things they wantContinue reading “StickK: Odysseus on an electronic mast”
Start The Week: on “big data”
Start The Week (Radio 4): Big Data Here’s a link to this morning’s Start The Week, discussing “big data” and mathematical modelling of data. Well worth a listen. Contributions are from James Owen Weatherall on physicists in finance, Marcus du Sautoy, Kenneth Cukier and sociologist Tiffany Jenkins. While there is an unstoppable logic to gatheringContinue reading “Start The Week: on “big data””
Scrimping on incentives and other false economies
Reading Michael Sandel‘s What Money Can’t Buy – subtitled The Moral Limits of Markets – has made me reflect on researchers‘ attitudes to the ‘incentives‘, as we call them in the UK, that we pay to research participants. At the risk of now being bombarded by offers of participation in my projects from the entireContinue reading “Scrimping on incentives and other false economies”
Kahneman in conversation with Evan Davies and Prof Paul Dolan
Kahneman discusses Thinking Fast And Slow at LSE with Evan Davies and Paul Dolan For those interested in psychology and behavioural economics, here is a quick link via Prof Paul Dolan’s site to an hour’s discussion between Evan Davies, Dolan and Kahneman about Thinking Fast and Slow, which took place a while back when theContinue reading “Kahneman in conversation with Evan Davies and Prof Paul Dolan”
Steering the elephant in the room, not just nudging it
In between helping my lad complete The Usborne Book Of Things To Spot out of the Flybe plane window back from Belfast at the weekend (or Fly Maybe as they are sometimes known) I caught up with Matt Grist’s paper, “Steer”, for the RSA from a couple of years back. The report was part ofContinue reading “Steering the elephant in the room, not just nudging it”
More Brooks – TED talk on reasons to be cheerful about the revolution
Brooks TED talk on The Social Animal This entertaining, brief talk gives a flavour of the book. Must read his book about our feted but ludicrous social elites, with a great title: Bobos in Paradise. I think he writes mainly about America so let’s pretend it isn’t the same here. For now, carrying on withContinue reading “More Brooks – TED talk on reasons to be cheerful about the revolution”
An Insight on Qual Analysis: from David Brooks’s “The Social Animal”
On my recent visit to the US I finally got around to buying The Social Animal (Random House, 2011) – subtitled The Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement – by New York Times writer David Brooks. I’m reading it at the moment. It’s full of interesting stuff about what makes us who we areContinue reading “An Insight on Qual Analysis: from David Brooks’s “The Social Animal””
Fuel “panic”: when laissez-faire crisis management met the rational herd
We’ve seen over the last week a great illustration of why government and companies ought to listen to behavioural economists – and social researchers generally for that matter. I bought fuel on the way into my meeting in London on Friday, though my tank had enough petrol to get me there and back. Why? NotContinue reading “Fuel “panic”: when laissez-faire crisis management met the rational herd”
Knocked unconscious
Last night’s Horizon on BBC2 was really fascinating – throwing some light onto the unconscious mind. Thanks John Habershon of Momentum for alerting me to this through the ICG email group. Horizon: Out of Control? Some great stuff to show how unaware people are of what their brain is making them do: an experiment whereContinue reading “Knocked unconscious”
Strangers on the Shore 