Automaticity bias

The purpose of this chapter is to emphasize the implication of neuroeconomics with respect to the training and behavior of financial economists. To this end, the chapter, first, brings to the fore two aspects of neuroeconomics, namely, that thinking imposes strain on the mind, and that brain activity is a scarce resource, as a result of which individuals economize on the use of brain power by relegating deliberately learned concepts to brain automaticity. This chapter, then, discusses how this process affects the attitude of an economist, who is trained in a specific school of economic thought, toward the interpretation of current economic events or other economic issues. Unless the economist gets exposure to other schools of economic thought (e.g., through a multi-paradigmatic approach), the economist will have an unconscious biased view of the economic world. The analysis provided in this chapter is applicable to any process that involves training human beings, whether it is education in any field of study, socialization in any specific culture, inculcation of any particular ideology, etc.