false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1190909843m/1960096.jpg 1960096 2 Bestselling author Michael Shermer explains how evolution shaped the modern economy-and why people are so irrational about money How did we make the leap from ancient hunter-gatherers to modern consumers and traders? Why do people get so emotional and irrational about bottom-line financial and business decisions? Is the capitalist marketplace a sort of Darwinian organism, evolved through natural selection as the fittest way to satisfy our needs? In this eye-opening exploration, author and psychologist Michael Shermer uncovers the evolutionary roots of our economic behavior. Drawing on the new field of neuroeconomics, Shermer investigates what brain scans reveal about bargaining, snap purchases, and establishing trust in business. He scrutinizes experiments in behavioral economics to understand why people hang on to losing stocks, why negotiations disintegrate into tit-for-tat disputes, and why money does not make us happy. He brings together astonishing findings from psychology, biology, and other sciences to describe how our tribal ancestry makes us suckers for brands, why researchers believe cooperation unleashes biochemicals similar to those released during sex, why free trade promises to build alliances between nations, and how even capuchin monkeys get indignant if they don't get a fair reward for their work. 1963137 26 12 2007 The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics total:77|5:12|4:22|3:33|2:9|1:1| 77 266 211 22 4 0 false false Wed Feb 11 06:08:52 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 06:09:05 -0800 2009
Shermer le...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jul 07 00:14:15 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 00:15:33 -0700 2009
This is a lively, entertaining, useful and uneven work. Author Michael Shermer ranges over an array of disciplines to synthesize current understanding of the intersection of economics and evolution. He defines and debunks homo economicus, or the econ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Apr 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 13:31:06 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 13:37:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Apr 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 08 10:50:27 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 08:36:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Feb 19 14:07:51 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 14:11:58 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Dec 19 20:16:50 -0800 2008 Sun Jul 27 20:44:55 -0700 2008 Fri Dec 19 20:16:50 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Jul 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 06:36:36 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 06:40:42 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Dec 14 16:16:40 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 25 16:19:35 -0800 2009 Most chapters follow this format: identify an economic scenario, and the most rational response to it; cite studies showing people consistently do something else; refer to fMRI studies that show the parts of the brain responsible for this behavior; cite other studies showing the same or similar beha...

more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Jan 14 03:57:55 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 04:01:39 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 02 13:11:29 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 13:14:33 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Mon Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 22:04:20 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 22:06:35 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Aug 24 16:45:47 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 24 16:51:28 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue May 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 03 11:40:17 -0700 2008 Wed May 28 07:53:56 -0700 2008 Why do we make the choices we make? How much are we a product of culture / marketing? Why do we do the things we do? How much of our lives.. our circumstances ... did we create ourselves? A lot of the books I read approach these subjects. Perhaps, because I read so many of them, a lot of t...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Aug 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 13:47:56 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 08:08:08 -0700 2009
I gave the book three stars, because I enjoyed very much ...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jul 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 30 17:16:26 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 08 09:54:01 -0700 2008
For other books about why we think the way we do, check out "Pred...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Apr 02 06:27:12 -0700 2009 Wed Jan 16 08:17:38 -0800 2008 Thu Apr 02 06:27:12 -0700 2009
]]> 2 0 false false Mon Oct 13 13:27:06 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 20 11:18:07 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Sun Jun 29 18:35:30 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 29 18:36:59 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Mon Jan 14 12:50:54 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 14 12:51:47 -0800 2008 freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com) 1/14/08.]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 20 05:53:53 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 20 05:54:13 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=1960096