Discussion Paper
No. 2019-45 |
July 25, 2019
Commentary on Edmund Rolls: ‘Emotion and reason in human decision-making’
(Published in Bio-psycho-social foundations of macroeconomics)
Abstract
In his paper Emotion and reasoning in human decision-making Edmund Rolls points out that multiple and independent types of reinforcement exist in the human brain, and that they cannot be reduced to a common currency. The present commentary introduces non-specialist readers to this wide variety of reinforcers, each of which carries equal biological value. The evolutionary forces underwriting them reveal much about the causes of our apparently irrational choices – which is why it is important for economists to acquaint themselves with such things.