3 BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS ARTICLES WORTH READING (4/9)

This weekend, a few of my friends and I vacationed in a small town near New York composed mainly of water-front vacation and retirement homes. Since we were wandering around a predominantly upper-class town, we wondered about the psychology behind how poverty or wealth might influence our openness to strangers. Are economically comfortable people more open/ friendlier to strangers? Is there a potential correlation between wealth and openness and would it change if the stranger were to attempt to become a more permanent part of the neighborhood?

1. This particularly insightful piece by R Douglas Fields about the neuroscience behind our urge to distinguish between the self and other came in handy during our conversation. I originally read it in the RSA journal and tracked its electronic version here.

We didn’t necessarily come to a conclusion (do let me know what you think via twitter), but here some of the other BE articles I enjoyed this week:

2. An article by Nic Gray on behavioral biases that make managing money a struggle even for the most strong-willed of us.

3. We often discuss behavioral biases as they affect the 'average' person but in this article, Rose Acton asks what do behavioral biases look like if you have a mental health problem?