IS HOMO ECONOMICUS

Abstract

The awarding in October of 2002 of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics 1 Technically the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, established in 1968.1 to Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith might have profound implications for the survival of Homo economicus, which has long occupied a privileged place in the minds of economists and decision-making theorists. The species has endured many challenges and proven quite adaptable, changing to accommodate a cascade of findings inconsistent with its original conception. Homo economicus now faces a potentially more serious challenge: the resurgence of Homo sapiens, a more coherent and biologically grounded model for human decision-making, informed by theory and data from across the scientific spectrum.

Citation

Aktipis, C.A. and Kurzban, R.O. (2005), "IS HOMO ECONOMICUS", Koppl, R. (Ed.) Evolutionary Psychology and Economic Theory (Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 135-153. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1529-2134(04)07007-3