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I don't understand why this field exists. They take observations of human behavior that have been common sense since... well, since humans have used money, and
by peterwwillis 9y ago
I don't understand why this field exists. They take observations of human behavior that have been common sense since... well, since humans have used money, and then try to wrap it in some sort of "scientific process" to prove these things empirically as if they weren't already obvious. Is it because economic theorists before had such stupid ideas and now they have to disprove every old unrealistic theory step by step?
- ghaff 9y agoBehavioral economics isn't really a separate field and, as Thaler notes in one of his recent books, behavioral ideas are being rolled into broader economics theory. The issue is that, historically, economics as a field of academic study made simplifying assumptions that pretty much everyone knew weren't completely true. But it's one thing to realize that there are anecdotal observations of irrationality and starting to make those some sort of coherent framework.
- titzer 9y ago> They take observations of human behavior that have been common sense since... well, since humans have used money, and then try to wrap it in some sort of "scientific process" to prove these things empirically as if they weren't already obvious. Welcome to Science, dude. Its bread and butter, repeatable experimentation, is the proving ground on which common sense is either quantified or rejected. This is how we climb out of the muck of our stupid prejudices.