The mind of the market : compassionate apes, competitive humans, and other tales from evolutionary economics /
Michael Shermer.
- 1st ed.
- New York : Times Books, 2008.
- xxiv, 308 p. ; 25 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [263]-293) and index.
Prologue : Economics for everyone -- great leap forward -- Our folk economics -- Bottom-up capitalism -- Of pandas, products, and people -- Minding our money -- extinction of homo economicus -- value of virtue -- Why money can't buy you happiness -- Trust with credit verification -- science of good rules -- Don't be evil -- Free to choose -- Epilogue : To open the world -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index. 1. The 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. The 7. The 8. 9. 10. The 11. 12.
In this eye-opening exploration, author and psychologist Michael Shermer uncovers the evolutionary roots of our economic behavior. Drawing on the new field of neuroeconomics, Shermer investigates what brain scans reveal about bargaining, snap purchases, and establishing trust in business. He scrutinizes experiments in behavioral economics to understand why people hang on to losing stocks, why negotiations disintegrate into tit-for-tat disputes, and why money does not make us happy. He brings together astonishing findings from psychology, biology, and other sciences to describe how our tribal ancestry makes us suckers for brands, why researchers believe cooperation unleashes biochemicals similar to those released during sex, why free trade promises to build alliances between nations, and how even capuchin monkeys get indignant if they don't get a fair reward for their work.--From publisher description.