Can Science Explain Our Foolish Financial Decisions?

Whether you're a liberal or a libertarian, it's generally accepted across the political spectrum that, in some form, the opportunity to make a lot of money drives the economic recessions and depressions the global economy experiences. Since we seem doomed to repeat the mistakes that brings us to the brink of economic meltdown every few decades, is there perhaps a scientific explanation for our behavior? According to a study soon to appear in Cortex, monetary gain, or even the mere possibility of receiving a reward, is known to activate an area of the brain called the striatum, and high-risk/high-gain decisions cause higher levels of activation than more conservative decisions. read more

Read the whole article on

More from