2003-06-14

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Brain Imaging Study Reveals Interplay of Thought, Emotion in Economic Decisions

For many people who follow America's financial markets, it is clear that economic decisions people make are not always rational. A study now offers one neurological explanation: people's choices can depend in part on what region of their brain emerges victorious from a battle between centers of emotional impulse and rational thinking. In a paper to be reported in the June 13 issue of Science, Princeton psychologists used brain-imaging technology to study people as they made decisions that caused them needlessly to lose money and found that negative emotional states can override logical thinking. The study supports a growing area of research called behavioral economics, which departs from conventional theory by considering psychological factors other than pure logic in individual decision-making.