“Looking Inside the Brains of the Stingy” is an account of the new field of neuroeconomics: the “science” of using brain scans (MRI) to see what sort of neural activity is correlated with economic decisions. (Via McKenzie Wark on nettime). Neural stimulation and hormone levels are supposed to ‘explain’ why people do not always act in accordance with the dictates of “rational choice” economics. “Neuroscientists do experiments like looking at which parts of the brain are active when someone looks at photographs and decides which faces are trustworthy.” Researchers pursuing this line of examination have found, for instance, that trying to make a financial deal with somebody who is perceived as a cheapskate “stimulates the part of the brain associated with disgust.” When people act generously, on the other hand, levels of oxytocin (the feel-good hormone) in the blood seem to go up. What startling discoveries! This kind of survey is almost the perfect reductio ad absurdum of the cognitive/rationalist worldview, or of what Edward O. Wilson calls consilience: the attempt to give scientific rigor to the ‘soft’ disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. I doubt that the most inventive satirist could come up with anything better.
Neuroeconomics
“Looking Inside the Brains of the Stingy” is an account of the new field of neuroeconomics: the “science” of using brain scans (MRI) to see what sort of neural activity is correlated with economic decisions. (Via McKenzie Wark on nettime). Neural stimulation and hormone levels are supposed to ‘explain’ why people do not always act in accordance with the dictates of “rational choice” economics. “Neuroscientists do experiments like looking at which parts of the brain are active when someone looks at photographs and decides which faces are trustworthy.” Researchers pursuing this line of examination have found, for instance, that trying to make a financial deal with somebody who is perceived as a cheapskate “stimulates the part of the brain associated with disgust.” When people act generously, on the other hand, levels of oxytocin (the feel-good hormone) in the blood seem to go up. What startling discoveries! This kind of survey is almost the perfect reductio ad absurdum of the cognitive/rationalist worldview, or of what Edward O. Wilson calls consilience: the attempt to give scientific rigor to the ‘soft’ disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. I doubt that the most inventive satirist could come up with anything better.