Predictions and Nudges: What Behavioral Economics Has to Offer the Humanities, and Vice-Versa (Book Review)

21 Pages Posted: 25 Aug 2014

See all articles by Anne C. Dailey

Anne C. Dailey

University of Connecticut - School of Law

Peter Siegelman

University of Connecticut - School of Law

Date Written: August 23, 2014

Abstract

This book review considers the intersection of work in behavioral economics and work in the humanities. It does so in the context of reviewing two books: Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein's Nudge (2008) and Dan Ariel's Predictably Irrational (2008). To the extent that behavioral findings on decision making enrich economists' toolkits, they should be considered a success. But even after behavioral insights have been fully incorporated into economics, humanists will still have a virtual monopoly in answer the kinds of questions they deem to be important. the key to understanding human behavior, in all its richness and complexity, is to adopt the kinds of tools appropriate for the task at hand. Both rational social science and humanistic methods have their places and their uses, and each discipline has something to offer the other, particularly in areas -- such as the existence of unconscious motives or the importance of early childhood -- where economists and humanists can agree. These two books under review give us reason to think that these points of psychological agreement between economics and the humanities are very much worth exploring.

Suggested Citation

Dailey, Anne C. and Siegelman, Peter, Predictions and Nudges: What Behavioral Economics Has to Offer the Humanities, and Vice-Versa (Book Review) (August 23, 2014). Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2009, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2485802

Anne C. Dailey (Contact Author)

University of Connecticut - School of Law ( email )

65 Elizabeth Street
Hartford, CT 06105
United States

Peter Siegelman

University of Connecticut - School of Law ( email )

65 Elizabeth Street
Hartford, CT 06105
United States
860-570-5238 (Phone)
860-570-5242 (Fax)

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