Rationality and Emotionality Interplay and Economic Contributions: A Neuroeconomics Experiment

Ashutosh Sarker, Wai-Ching Poon, Shamsul Haque and Gamini Herath

Review of Behavioral Economics, 2023, vol. 10, issue 1, 27-44

Abstract: In non-neuroscience-based studies, economists demonstrate that humans make suboptimal economic contributions (between zero and the theoretical maximum) in collective-action scenarios. Using a neuroeconomics experiment that integrates economics and neuroscience, this study investigates why humans make such suboptimal economic contributions. In this study, 90 adult participants, divided into 15 smaller groups, collectively participated in a computer-based public goods game while wearing electroencephalography headsets that recorded their neural activities during the game. The results show that when participants modified institutional arrangements (such as face-to-face communication), their economic contributions increased, albeit suboptimally. Furthermore, simultaneously and suboptimally in the frontal and temporal lobes, the participants’ positive rationality and emotionality increased, whereas their negative rationality and emotionality decreased. We suggest that suboptimal rationality and emotionality may underlie suboptimal economic contributions. This study offers broad implications for collectively and sustainably managing local, regional, and global commons, including the atmosphere in which humans cause climate change.

Keywords: Commons; public goods; institutional economics; neuroeconomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/105.00000169 (application/xml)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:now:jnlrbe:105.00000169

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Review of Behavioral Economics from now publishers
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lucy Wiseman ().