4 ms·
Behavioral economics is just a branch of psychology. A collection of trite rules of thumb relating to how people tend to act in certain "economic" situations.
by longdelay 7y ago
Behavioral economics is just a branch of psychology. A collection of trite rules of thumb relating to how people tend to act in certain "economic" situations.
It makes for good reading in the Harvard Business Review.
- MiroF 7y agoIs this true? I've tried to find more depth than this and have admittedly struggled in the past
- longdelay 7y agoIt's really true. When you understand this, it makes you realize how shallow and empty so much of economics really is. Macro investing literature is what you should read if you want to understand the economy. It's less focused on high level concepts and more on specific data points and how they relate to and impact one another.
- jevgeni 7y agoNo, it's not. longdelay has their own interests and thinks that adherence to those interests defines the value of a branch of science for everyone.
- disgruntledphd2 7y agoSo, what became known as behavioural economics was 100% started by two psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. While they investigated new topics (i.e. economics), their methodologies were 100% within the standard practice of social and cognitive psychology at the time. They were then awarded the Nobel Prize for this work. Now, not everyone in the field came from psychology, but a lot did, and the methods used in behavioural economics are essentially indistinguishable from those used in psychology. For references, Thinking Fast and Slow is probably the best source, as one of the original authors describes their research program.
- jevgeni 7y agoI understand what you are saying, but on the other hand we don't call calculus "physics" just because it was introduced by Newton (and Leibniz, yeah yeah). Also, modern economics use some heavy mathematical tools, yet nobody says its a branch of mathematics. And lastly, psychology is in my opinion one of the most important branches of science right now.
- nradov 7y agoWhy is psychology important right now? What have psychologists done for me lately?
- disgruntledphd2 7y agoI think that behavioural economics is it's own thing now, but it is heavily inspired by psychology (and, in it's turn, has helped to inspire psychology). I agree with you on psychology's importance, but that's probably because I am a psychologist :)