It seems obvious that the value of some potentially rewarding endeavor should reflect not just the size of the reward but also the amount of effort involved in realizing it. But how do we make that decision? In business, this can be an external computation: some analyst will sit down in front of Excel and [...]
Archive for April, 2009
TRB: How the Human Brain Weighs Costs and Benefits
Posted in Thursday Research Blogging, tagged Anterior cingulate cortex, Behavioral Economics, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Dopamine, Jill O'Reilly, Mark Walton, Matthew Rushworth, Neuroeconomics, Paula Croxson, The Journal of Neuroscience, Timothy Behrens, Value, Ventral striatum on April 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The End of “Us vs. Them”
Posted in Psychology of Political Ideology, tagged 9/11, Af-Pak, Conservative Psychology, Hobbes, Liberal Psychology, Nuclear Disarmament, Peter Scoblic, Political Ideology, President Bush, President Obama, Us and Them on April 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Following last week’s unveiling of the “new” strategy in Afghanistan (part of which involves referring to the theater as “Af-Pak,” apparently), there was some speculation that, at least on the foreign policy front, President Obama was representing not change but more of the same. As TNR editor Peter Scoblic argued, however, there might be some [...]
Nuggets of Hope
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged American Exceptionalism, Behavioral Economics, Hope, President Obama on April 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As I imagine has been the case for many young Obama supporters, I’ve found these first few months of the new administration somewhat dispiriting. Much of the idealistic hope surrounding Obama’s presidency evaporated soon after inauguration as the stimulus debate quickly degenerated into tired old left-right banality. And, while I genuinely think it is too [...]
TRB: Peeling Apart the Prefrontal Cortex
Posted in Thursday Research Blogging, tagged Cognitive Control, David Badre, Dualism, Existential Inquiry, Free Will, Human Nature, Jeffrey Cooney, Joshua Hoffman, Mark D'Esposito, Nature Neuroscience, Neuropsychology, Philosophy, Prefrontal Cortex on April 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
More than perhaps any of our other talents, the ability to reason strategically sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. When faced with a decision, we alone are capable of thinking ahead to consider which option will offer the greatest reward and selecting it, even when it might not immediately seem [...]
