Interview With Author Of Freak Market Mind Madness
Here is an interview with the author of a book on financial irrationality. It´s scheduled to come out in January 2009. Click Here To Skip Introduction & Access The Interview On Market Irrationality
Introduction (Via NeuroNarrative)
Scientific American Mind has a terrific short interview with Peter Ubel, professor of psychology and medicine at the University of Michigan. Ubel has a book set to come out soon called Free Market Madness, described as an investigation of irrational tics that lead people to overbid on eBay, eat too much ice cream and take out mortgages they can’t afford. Jonah Lehrer, editor of SciAm Mind and the blog The Frontal Cortex conducted the interview.
Interview Excerpt (Via NeuroNarrative)
LEHRER: Your new book, Free Market Madness, argues that conventional economics, which assumes that humans are rational agents acting in their own self-interest, is deeply naive and scientifically unrealistic. Instead, you describe a brain brimming withh biases and flaws. Do you think these flaws are responsible for the latest economic turmoil? If so, how?
UBEL: Irrationality is responsible for the economic mess we find ourselves in right now. Irrationality plus greed, of course, and a substantial dose of ignorance.
´´Let’s start with ignorance. I’m sad to say that many Americans have a difficult time with even simple math—around a third of American adults cannot calculate 10 percent of 1,000. People who struggle with concepts such as percents have an extremely difficult time with more complicated ideas, such as compounding of savings and, very relevant to our current crisis, adjustable rate mortgages.´´
