Las bases neuronales de la racionalidad limitada

Bounded rational behaviour is commonly observed in experimental games and in real life situations. Neuroeconomics can help to understand the mental processing underlying bounded rationality and out-of-equilibrium behaviour. Here we report results from recent studies on the neural basis of limited steps of reasoning in a competitive setting —the beauty contest game. We use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the neural correlates of human mental processes in strategic games. We apply a cognitive hierarchy model to classify subject’s choices in the experimental game according to the degree of strategic reasoning so that we can identify the neural substrates of different levels of strategizing. We found a correlation between levels of strategic reasoning and activity in a neural network related to mentalizing, i.e. the ability to think about other’s thoughts and mental states. Moreover, brain data showed how complex cognitive processes subserve the higher level of reasoning about others. We describe how a cognitive hierarchy model fits both behavioural and brain data.La racionalidad limitada es un fenómeno observado de manera frecuente tanto en juegos experimentales como en situaciones cotidianas. La Neuroeconomía puede mejorar la comprensión de los procesos mentales que caracterizan la racionalidad limitada; en paralelo nos puede ayudar a comprender comportamientos que violan el equilibrio. Nuestro trabajo presenta resultados recientes sobre la bases neuronales del razonamiento estratégico (y sus límite) en juegos competitivos —como el juego del “beauty contest”. Estudiamos las bases neuronales del comportamiento estratégico en juegos con interacción entre sujetos usando resonancia magnética funcional (fMRI). Las decisiones de los participantes se clasifican acorde al grado de razonamiento estratégico: el llamado modelo de Jerarquías Cognitivas. Los resultados muestran una correlación entre niveles de razonamiento y actividad neuronal relacionada con el “mentalizing”, es decir, con la habilidad para pensar y atribuir pensamientos y estados mentales a otros individuos. Más aun, la actividad cerebral nos muestra que los procesos cognitivos complejos aparecen en los niveles superiores de razonamiento estratégico. Finalmente, nuestro trabajo evidencia que el modelo de Jerarquías Cognitivas describen bien el comportamiento y la actividad cerebral

The Influence of Experimental and Computational Economics: Economics Back to the Future of Social Sciences

Economics has been a most puzzling science, namely since the neoclassical revolution defined the legitimate procedures for theorisation and quantification. Its epistemology has based on farce: decisive tests are not applied on dare predictions. As a consequence, estimation has finally been replaced by simulation, and empirical tests have been substituted by non-disciplined exercises of comparison of models with reality. Furthermore, the core concepts of economics defy the normally accepted semantics and tend to establish meanings of their own. One of the obvious instances is the notion of rationality, which has been generally equated with the apt use of formal logic or the ability to apply econometric estimation as a rule of thumb for daily life. In that sense, rationality is defined devoid of content, as alien to the construction of significance and reference by reason and social communication. The contradictory use of simulacra and automata, by John von Neumann and Herbert Simon, was a response to this escape of economic models from reality, suggesting that markets could be conceived of as complex institutions. But most mainstream economists did not understand or did not accept these novelties, and the empirical inquiry or the realistic representation of the action of agents and of their social interaction remained a minor domain of economics, and was essentially ignored by canonical theorizing. The argument of the current paper is based on a survey and discussion of the twin contributions of experimental and computational economics to these issues. Although mainly arising out of the mainstream, these emergent fields of economics generate challenging heuristics as well as new empirical results that defy orthodoxy. Their contributions both to the definition of the social meanings of rationality and to the definition of a new brand of inductive economics are discussed.

Giving or Taking: The Role of Dispositional Power Motivation and Positive Affect in Profit Maximization?

Socio-economic decisions are commonly explained by rational cost vs. benefit considerations, whereas person variables have not usually been considered. The present study aims at investigating the degree to which dispositional power motivation and affective states predict socio-economic decisions. The power motive was assessed both indirectly and directly using a TAT-like picture test and a power motive self-report, respectively. After nine months, 62 students completed an affect rating and performed on a money allocation task (Social Values Questionnaire). We hypothesized and confirmed that dispositional power should be associated with a tendency to maximize one’s profit but to care less about another party’s profit. Additionally, positive affect showed effects in the same direction. The results are discussed with respect to a motivational approach explaining socio-economic behaviour.economic decision-making, rational choice theory, personality, implicit power motive, positive affect, operant motive test