Why Homo Economicus help each other? (Insights from behavioral economics and neuroeconomics)
Why Homo Economicus help each other? (Insights from behavioral economics and neuroeconomics)

Author(s): Lenka Kopečková
Subject(s): Economy, Neuropsychology, Behaviorism
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Social preferences; Behavioral Economics; Neuroeconomics;
Summary/Abstract: Students of economics are commonly “drummed into head” that people do not care about others. Our subjects are “Homo Economicus” and they only care about maximization of own utility no matter of what impact it has on others. Yet in our daily, we can observe many examples that go against this assumption. People contribute to charities, donate blood and sometimes they even sacrifice theirs life to help others. This clearly contradicts assumption of rationality- but is this behavior irrational? This review study aims to briefly map development of economic thinking about rationality in a relation to social decision making. It begins with neoclassical „rational man“ and its origins. It goes further by introducing behavioral economics and its theories of social preferences -which claim that helping others may in fact lead to maximization of one’s own utility. On examples of selected studies it shows its strengths and weaknesses.

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