Comments on: A monkey economy as irrational as ours: Laurie Santos on TED.com http://blog.ted.com/2010/07/29/a-monkey-economy-as-irrational-as-ours-laurie-santos-on-ted-com/ The TED Blog shares interesting news about TED, TED Talks video, the TED Prize and more. Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:20:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Bryan Hayes http://blog.ted.com/2010/07/29/a-monkey-economy-as-irrational-as-ours-laurie-santos-on-ted-com/comment-page-1/#comment-14634 Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:06:33 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=45138#comment-14634 The difference between winning and losing is how you ask yourself the questions, even in racing sailboats. http://bhsailing.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/ted-blog-a-monkey-economy-as-irrational-as-ours-laurie-santos-on-ted-com/

]]> By: Bryan Hayes http://blog.ted.com/2010/07/29/a-monkey-economy-as-irrational-as-ours-laurie-santos-on-ted-com/comment-page-1/#comment-14632 Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:44:24 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=45138#comment-14632 The difference between winning and losing is how you ask yourself the questions.

]]> By: Earon Davis http://blog.ted.com/2010/07/29/a-monkey-economy-as-irrational-as-ours-laurie-santos-on-ted-com/comment-page-1/#comment-12227 Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:48:42 +0000 http://blog.ted.com/?p=45138#comment-12227 Who says there’s no intelligent life on this planet :)
I enjoyed the presentation on monkey’s irrational economic behavior. It rings true to me. I’ve come to the conclusion that human motivation is actually not very different from that of other primates, and that our “rational” thinking represents more of a window-dressing than actual reasoning. We explain/describe our behavior, often without a true understanding of why we did something.

So, I agree that being more aware of our motivation brings us more potential to BE rational rather than just THINK we are rational. Your research is, therefore, not just helpful in understanding monkeys, but in understanding ourselves. It can serve to make us more humble and self-aware, as long as we are not mortified at how primitive most of our thinking actually is. You are making a real contribution to human sustainability!

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