PSICO-NEURO-ECONOMÍA: el Blog de Sebastián Laza

The selfish and utilitarian side of human beings, that of Adam Smith's famous "invisible hand," is the basis of modern economic theory, which is studied in universities, and which was developed and deepened over the past two centuries. And the approach is not bad, without a little human selfishness, private property and much of its associated productivity would be impossible, which in the end has made the modern world grow in an unusual way during the twentieth century, although with certain inequality in the distribution of income and with some carelessness with the environment. But the selfish side is a partial approach to the complex human dimension. It is necessary to incorporate the emotional side to economic models, where the passions that often cloud reason, empathy, trust generation, collaborative and cooperative spirit, the psychological biases that make us fall into bubbles, overreactions, panics are addressed and other mistakes, and that powerful “unconsci...

La Economía que se estudia en las universidades está asentada sobre tres "falsas verdades", o de forma más suave, tres “verdades a medias”. Sus modelos suponen seres humanos egoístas, con voluntad ilimitada y con racionalidad ilimitada. Ninguna de dichos tres parámetros son reales, estando bastante alejados del hombre real de carne y hueso. Las bases iniciales del egoísmo en la economía vienen principalmente de las ideas utilitaristas de J.S.Mill, si bien el mismo autor reconoce en sus escritos que existe una parte de la conducta humana donde la obtención de riqueza no es el principal objetivo.  La cuestión es que, si bien el egoísmo ha sido clave para el capitalismo, la propiedad privada y la productividad, el ser humano tiene un importante sentido del altruismo, la empatía, la confianza y la cooperación, que hace que los modernos enfoques del Nuevo Capitalismo del Siglo XXI los contemplen, el llamado capitalismo colaborativo.  Ser altruista, empático y colabor...

The extreme volatility of stock markets would be closely related to the over-use of Kahneman's fast system to process context information Psychologists, from many decades ago, have been finding more and more mental operations that operate outside of consciousness. And while the historical tradition says that the unconscious is primarily the repository of repressed thoughts about violence and sex, modern neuro findings speak of a remarkable unconscious rationality, which would help us make quick decisions of a certain quality, being key to Economics and Finance. Unconscious operations underlie many of our inferences and judgments, as well as a large number of decisions and problem solving, including monetary / financial. In fact, the unconscious mind can often do a better job of these things than the conscious mind, which is no small thing for an economic science traditionally thought of as hyper rational, or at least of rational expectations. The story goes that the ...

La extrema volatilidad de los mercados de valores estaría relacionada con la sobre-utilización del sistema 1 de Kahneman para procesar la información del contexto.  Desde finales del siglo XIX, los psicólogos vienen encontrando cada vez más operaciones mentales que operan fuera de la conciencia. Y si bien la tradición histórica dice que el inconsciente es principalmente el depósito de pensamientos reprimidos sobre la violencia y el sexo, los modernos hallazgos neuro hablan de una notable racionalidad inconsciente, que nos ayudaría a tomar decisiones rápidas y de cierta calidad, siendo claves para la economía y las altas finanzas.  Las operaciones inconscientes subyacen a muchas de nuestras inferencias y juicios, así como a una gran cantidad de decisiones y resolución de problemas, incluyendo los monetarios/financieros. De hecho, la mente inconsciente, a menudo, puede hacer un mejor trabajo de estas cosas que la mente consciente, lo que no es poca cosa para una ci...

Fear is one of the six basic emotions of the human being. Financial markets, as a group of human beings, also go through waves of exacerbated fear. In the case of Argentina, the markets, with their extreme fear of Kirchnerism, and as self-fulfilling prophecy, ended up generating the macro conditions that made those who feared so much win. The electoral results in Argentina were a surprise for many, since a triumph of opposition candidate was not predictable, because in the last stage of its last government, executed a painful economic policy, along with a great embezzlement of public funds, whose results have not yet been overcome. However, they won again! What happened is the expression of the complex psychological behavior of Argentine people, marked by a big emotionality in their decision-making process, a vote exercised mainly from the reptilian brain: fear and flight. In Argentine, fear is permanent, its inhabitants are always on the defensive . Everything seems to be go...

Altruism is innate to the human brain, but we have not managed enough to exploit it socially to eliminate unemployment. Government could coordinate "altruistic win-win operations" for the benefit of companies and worker unions. Neoclassical Economics is based on three "false truths". Their models suppose egoistic human beings, with unlimited will and unlimited rationality. None of these three parameters are real, being quite far from the man of flesh and blood. In this way, neoclassical theory, forged at the beginning of the 20th century but still studied in universities, was designed with the assumption that economic behavior that seeks self-interest dominates the motives of altruism and benevolence, surpassing JS Mill's initial idea, who thought that the economist should elaborate his theories "as if the man were egoistic, although he was not completely", but not "knowing that the man is selfish", as it ended up imposing. Altr...

Modern findings about the big power of the unconscious in decision making, connects Economics with the classical postulates of Freud, the father of Psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud was one of the greatest intellectual figures of the 20th century, an Austrian neurological doctor of Jewish origin. Much of his work remains, to this day, highly controversial, where some academics point to his as a genius, while others highlight his alleged lack of scientific seriousness. Freud tries to give an explanation to the way mind operates , proposing a structure divided into three parts: the id, the ego and the superego. The ID represents the primal impulses and constitutes the engine of human thought and behavior, motivation and our most primitive gratification desires. The SUPEREGO is the part that counteracts the id, representing moral and ethical thoughts. The EGO remains between them, and acts mediating between our primitive needs and our ethical and moral beliefs. The Freudian ...

Los modernos hallazgos sobre el enorme poder del inconsciente en la toma de decisiones económicas, conecta a la Economía con los clásicos postulados de Freud, el padre del Psicoanálisis. El padre del psicoanálisis y una de las mayores figuras intelectuales del siglo XX, Sigmund Freud, fue un médico neurólogo austriaco de origen judío. Gran parte de sus obras siguen siendo, al día de hoy, altamente controvertidas, donde algunos señalan su genialidad, mientras que otros resaltan su presunta falta de seriedad científica. Freud trata de dar una explicación a la forma de operar de la mente, proponiendo una estructura dividida en tres partes: el Ello, el Yo y el Superyó. El Ello representa los impulsos primigenios y constituye el motor del pensamiento y el comportamiento humano, la motivación y nuestros deseos de gratificación más primitivos. El Superyó, es la parte que contrarresta al Ello, representando los pensamientos morales y éticos. El Yo permanece entre ambos, y actúa m...

 Inflação é uma interpretação que nosso modelo mental faz sobre um futuro que percebe negativo. Mas ... e se esse modelo mental mudasse? Lembre-se que o nosso cérebro "acredita em ver" em vez de "ver para acreditar". Rios de tinta foram escritos sobre a questão da inflação nos últimos 70 anos. Eles vão desde a mais para as versões keynesianos mais liberais, todos de alguma forma teorizar sobre como um "aumento sustentado e generalizado dos preços" tal seria gerado. Sem dúvida, a grande maioria das teorias dar um lugar preponderante para o aumento exagerado nos montantes de dinheiro monetária, É por isso que os bancos centrais (sérios) tomam cuidado para não cair nesses excessos. No entanto, esse consenso, essa matriz, não é necessariamente a explicação subjacente da inflação, mas sim a resultante. Resultado do que o leitor vai perguntar? Resultante de nossos modelos mentais, formado a partir de muito jovem, que suportam esta explicação monetarista...