Sunday, January 13, 2008

Shermer on economic irrationality

Pinker isn't the only one who has a popular article out today that plays on an earlier book title, Michael Shermer (author of Why People Believe Weird Things) has an LA Times op-ed out entitled (wait for it...) "Why People Believe Weird Things About Money". Reflecting the fact that he's now a fan of evolutionary psychology (as I reported earlier), Shermer argues that various examples of irrational economic behavior (such as loss aversion) are the product of evolution. The article is a worthy read on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Shermer, by the way, has a new book out, The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics.

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