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Basic Instincts: Human Nature and the New Economics (Paperback)

by Pete Lunn (Author)

4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish (29 May 2008)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0462099202
ISBN-13: 978-0462099200
Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.2 x 3 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 137,311 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Human instincts are surprisingly sophisticated and subtle, having adapted over generations of trading with each other. Understanding how these instincts work can not only change the way you think about your own affairs, it can alter how you think about a whole range of economic and business issues (from what constitutes a fair salary to the impact of globalisation). A new breed of economists known as behavioural economists has started to observe economic life more closely. This book reveals the fascinating results of their studies. Human instincts have long been ignored by traditional economics, but they are crucial factors in major economic decisions, and hence important for our futures. This engaging book is about those human instincts and how the study of them has begun to change fundamentally the science of economics and our own behaviour in today's world.

About the Author

An economist and former BBC journalist, Pete Lunn now works for the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin. Pete has an unusual background for an economist, having originally trained a neuroscientist. He received a PhD in human perception from the University of London at just 24 years of age. He then spent over a decade in journalism, mostly with BBC Newsnight in London, but also in Ireland, where he was founding editor of the country s first specialist talk radio station, NewsTalk. A former English Speaking Union scholar, Pete specialises in bringing original or complex ideas to wider audiences. His work in television and radio has won several national awards. After re-qualifying as an economist, he now devotes his energies to policy research and to spreading new economic thinking.

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Average Customer Review

4.9 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Economists are from Marketopia but we are from Muddleton, 3 Jun 2008

By	"I can read you know" - See all my reviews

This book is a simple, elegant and devastating critique of "traditional economics" without a formula in sight. As a writer Lunn has soft, cosy style which is the velvet glove that covers the iron fist of his ideas. According to Lunn traditional economics has based its work on the assumption that people (that's you and me folks) are selfish, rational things that seek to maximise all the happiness that we can manage and these assumptions are, well not to put too fine a point on it, wrong!

As a Behavioural Economist Lunn has this fetish for real world evidence which traditional economist have ignored as it kept screwing up their mathematical models. To help us understand the core differences in approach Lunn introduces us to two lands - the traditional economist Marketopia and the real world of Muddleton. The differences were so marked between the traditional models and what the evidence shows about people's real economic behaviour, I actually laughed out loud. (A rather hysterical scared laugh!) In Marketopia economic behaviour is clear, straight forward, and we are conscious of how to maximise our economic worth which makes it very easy to model, but in Muddleton economic behaviour is eccentric, sometimes selfless, and not very rational and often is not even a conscious act. It would, as Lunn points out, be wrong to think that such differences are quant academic novelties. The problem is that almost all economic policy is based on traditional economic models - which are wrong. This is serious stuff. Very serious!

An excellent book that made me reconsider not only the personal economic decisions I have made in a completely different light but also the economic policies of governments. I thought this book was much better than some of the other popular think books such as "Freakenomics" and was at least as good if not better than "Tipping Point". I would recommend this as both a good read and an easy introduction into the ideas of behavioural economics. I don't want to spoil the end for you - yes a think book that ends better than it starts - but I do want to say "Viva le revolution!"

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bucking the market, 24 Jun 2008

By	Mike Ritchie (London) - See all my reviews

This is a fascinating and entertaining book that has really changed the way I see all sorts of things ranging from the way we buy things in one shop despite the fact that they are cheaper in the shop next door, to whether money really is what makes us work hard, to why so many of us buy Gillette razors. While it is full of stories from the business world and accounts of strange experiments in which people have to hand over money to each other it is much more than a collection of economic anecdotes. The author's purpose is to explain a major battle going on in economics between believers in orthodox market concepts and so-called behavioural economists. The behaviouralists are using evidence from experiments and real world experience to question the traditional assumptions that we're all rational, selfish and well informed in our economic decisions and the outcome of this spat could have profound consequences for the way we run our society. It is written in a clear and refreshing style with no formulas or maths required, but it is not afraid to bring in difficult economic concepts. This is the perfect book if you spend time reading and listening to people talking about economics - the credit crunch, wage demands, forecasts of how the economy is going to do in the future - but have never really questioned what is going on behind it all. Great fun, challenging but easy to read.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Economists believe their sums not the truth, 30 Jul 2008

By	Mr. Richard Treves - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book starts with a great 'parable', the argument unfolds logically, the author tells personal stories that really suck the reader in. He also introduces terms like yucki, endian and witt and then refers to them through the book. These are very memorable and made the book easy to read and follow.

The core story 'Economists believe their sums not the truth' was a great tale. Its not unknown in science for modellers to get lost in their maths and forget the world they're describing but I don't know anything as widespread as the situation that the author describes for economists.

A couple of things came to mind as I was reading: I read somewhere that a paradigm breaking in science has 3 stages
(1) the traditionalists (who, to be fair to them, have spent their careers refining a model and training postgrads in the model to see it begin to crumble before their eyes) attack the new theory venomously.
(2) When some key people in the field being to support the new paradigm (and it is the support of people not of data that is usually important) grudgingly they admit that there is something in it
(3) They whole heartedly support it and always did so.

It seems from the book that economists are at (2) and spent a long, long time in stage (1).

Thoroughly good read, great story, go buy it.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Nicely readable intro into behavioural economics, shame about the rant
Nice book, really readable and an interesting introduction into the anomalies between traditional economics and real human behaviour. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Aleko

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating material, brilliantly exposed
If you have even a passing interest in Economics you should enjoy this book, and find it thought provoking. Read more

Published 13 months ago by J. Wyper

5.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Guide to Behavioural Economics
If you've ever wondered how your own personal decisions about jobs, purchases etc map onto the conventional view of economics then this is the book for you. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Psychophysicist

5.0 out of 5 stars Breath of Fresh Air
Anyone who considers the multitude of ways in which economies go down the toilet and in which economists bluster and blather cannot but have wondered whether there is something... Read more

Published 17 months ago by The good doctor

5.0 out of 5 stars Bringing economics to life
Pete Lunn has succeeded where so may economists fail: he's made cutting-edge economics intelligible and fascinating. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Browne

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