Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T04:29:05.337Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Folk-economic beliefs as moral intuitions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2018

Neil Malhotra*
Affiliation:
Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. [email protected]/~neilm

Abstract

Although Boyer & Petersen's (B&P's) cataloguing of and evolutionary explanations for folk-economic beliefs is important and valuable, the authors fail to connect their theories to existing explanations for why people do not think like economists. For instance, people often have moral intuitions akin to principles of fairness and justice that conflict with utilitarian approaches to resource allocation.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Binmore, K. (2008) Rational decisions. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Calabresi, G. & Melamed, A. D. (1972) Property rules, liability rules, and inalienability: One view of the cathedral. Harvard Law Review 85(6):1089–128.Google Scholar
Chen, M. K., Lakshminarayanan, V. & Santos, L. R. (2006) How basic are behavioral biases? Evidence from capuchin monkey trading behavior. Journal of Political Economy 114(3):517–37.Google Scholar
Fiske, A. P. & Tetlock, P. E. (1997) Taboo trade-offs: Reactions to transactions that transgress the spheres of justice. Political Psychology 18(2):255–97.Google Scholar
Gigerenzer, G. (1996) On narrow norms and vague heuristics: A reply to Kahneman and Tversky. Psychological Review 103(3):592–96.Google Scholar
Haidt, J. (2012) The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Vintage.Google Scholar
Halevy, N., Chou, E. Y. & Murnighan, J. K. (2012) Mind games: The mental representation of conflict. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 102(1):132–48.Google Scholar
Malhotra, N. (2015) An empirical analysis of “tort tales”: How cultural memes influence attitudes on tort reform. Journal of Law and Courts 3(1):149–66.Google Scholar
Milgrom, P. R., North, D. C. & Weingast, B. R. (1990) The role of institutions in the revival of trade: The law merchant, private judges, and the champagne fairs. Economics and Politics 2(1):123.Google Scholar
Robbins, L. (1997) Interpersonal comparisons of utility: A comment. In: Economic science and political economy, ed. Howson, S., pp. 199204. Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar