#624 David Leiser - How We Misunderstand Economics And Why It Matters
RECORDED ON FEBRUARY 7th 2022.
Dr. David Leiser is a professor of economic and social psychology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Dr. Leiser has served as President of the Economic Psychology division of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) since 2014. He is the author of Cognitive Science and Genetic Epistemology - a Case Study of Understanding, and How We Misunderstand Economics And Why It Matters: The Psychology of Bias, Distortion and Conspiracy.
In this episode, we focus on How We Misunderstand Economics and Why It Matters. We start by talking about people’s intuitions about economic issues. We go through some of the psychological phenomena that distance people from economic theory - the law of unintended consequences, the intentionality bias, opportunity cost neglect, and the denial of tradeoffs. We talk about how people think about unemployment and inflation, and what economists know about them. We discuss the effects of political ideology, moral values, and the metaphors people use. We talk about how people think about capitalism. Finally, we discuss if the public needs more education on economics, and how to do it.
Time Links:
Intro
Folk economics
Aspects of psychology that distance people the most from economic theory
The law of unintended consequences, the intentionality bias, opportunity cost neglect, and the denial of tradeoffs
Unemployment and inflation
Political ideology
Metaphors of the economy
How people think about capitalism
Moral values
How to educate the public on economics
Follow Dr. Leiser’s work!
Follow Dr. Leiser’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3Gzy67C
Website: https://bit.ly/34yheiZ
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3GIQnQ3
Amazon page: https://amzn.to/3mwT2Ep
How We Misunderstand Economics and Why it Matters: https://amzn.to/2XUbqNJ