[cobran20]

staringclown, on 21 February 2012 - 09:28 AM, said:

Economics and the brain: how people really make decisions in turbulent times

Which is why fundamentalists regularly struggle to understand the behaviour of markets. They can't comprehend the idea that sentiment plays a major part. Prechter published this back in 1979. So those scientists are a bit behind!

[staringclown]

cobran20, on 21 February 2012 - 09:58 AM, said:

Which is why fundamentalists regularly struggle to understand the behaviour of markets. They can't comprehend the idea that sentiment plays a major part. Prechter published this back in 1979. So those scientists are a bit behind!

hehe. It's graduated from an hypothesis to a theory now. Better late than never. No doubt in my mind that humans create self fulfilling prophecies and that cycles are unavoidable.

[AndersB]

Here is a fascinating journal article by Camerer and Loewenstein (2005) Neuroeconomics: How Neuroscience Can Inform Economics
http://sds.hss.cmu.e...omicsInform.pdf

The article has been cited 1036 times according to Google Scholar.

It is a bit long, but well worth a read. They argue that neural functions can be classified into two dimensions (four quadrants):

• Controlled (conscious) versus Automatic (unconscious)
• Cognitive versus Affective (emotional)

It seems the automatic and affective brain processes are often dominant in our decision making. On page 31 they mention that brain scans show that awareness of our decisions happen about 300 ms after activity that indicate a decision has already been made by the automatic processes. The conscious processes then justify our (often emotional) decision.

Yet, the perception of consciousness and free will exist, and it is possible for the conscious mind to overrule emotional decisions.

I find the English sentence "I made up my mind" a curious construct. If "I" and "mind" are different entities - is that a reflection of conscious versus unconscious brain processes?

This post has been edited by AndersB: 04 March 2012 - 12:10 AM