Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Economics and Emotions by Emmanuel Petit


Emotions play a major role in lives of everyday role that the social sciences, such as philosophy, psychology or sociology, have identified a long time ago.
For economists, however, the introduction of emotions has a lot to do with innovation agenda
as all the current  standard model of the economy  are mostly based on the 2 main pilars : rationality and egoism . As if we were all minded as Mister SPOCK and behave only for rational and selfish purpose.
However are emotions able to change the game in economics theories ? would it be possible to encourage people to adopt beneficial behaviors for the community?

The answer definitly sounds YES to my mind and  as a matter of fact, Emmanuel Petit in this must read book shows and explains very well the power of sentiments and how they can motivate actions and purposes in a good way.

How for instance you can reduce people electricity consumption only with simpe tools like emoticons ?  How you can achieve goals of economic policy by influencing others in a simple and smart way ?

This book offers, in an educational and non-technical form, complete and concise overview of how economists integrate affective processes - emotions, moods or feelings - in the economic analysis.

I would definitely recommend this book , feel free to order it within this link http://www.editionsladecouverte.fr/catalogue/index-_conomie_des_emotions-9782707183200.html

above an extract of my sketching notes of this book (in french)

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