Distributed Cognition and Consumer Choice: Plugging Semiotics into Neuroeconomics
46 Pages Posted: 22 Jun 2011
Date Written: June 22, 2011
Abstract
Recently, Glimcher has proposed a reductionist model of choice which directly reduces a modified version of economic utility theory to neuroscience. I propose an alternative conceptual framework that adopts the position of externalism, which I further narrow down to a distributed cognition framework, and eventually to a biosemiotic model of human choice. I relate this with existing modular theories about the brain, which I generalize into a dual selves model. In this model, the internal information asymmetries and deficiencies of the brain/body system drive the reliance of choices on external cognitive mechanisms manifested in sign systems. I analyze this interaction and I apply the combined biosemiotics/dual selves model on an important set of falsifiers of an integrated reductionist model of neuroeconomics, addiction and other consumption disorders.
Keywords: neuroeconomics, semiotics, dual selves, distributed cognition, consumption disorders, addiction
JEL Classification: B52, D80, Z10
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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