John Dewey And Education Education Essay

The thoughts of the great American philosopher, John Dewey, transformed the American instruction system. While all Dewey did was merely use some of his pragmatist philosophical ideals to the schoolroom, the consequences of his work changed instruction everlastingly. In the short essay, â€Å" My Pedagogic Creed, † Dewey gives his readers great insight into his thoughts sing what instruction is, how it should be done, and why it ‘s of import. Today, he is considered a â€Å" male parent of instruction † and his positions are being adapted in all kinds of ways in schoolrooms around the universe. Dewey foremost stood out by rejecting the traditional ideal of American instruction which was built around instructors standing up in the forepart of the schoolroom and pouring information into the heads of their pupils. Alternatively, Dewey suggested a new signifier of instruction that utilised applicable experience as the cardinal component of larning. Thesis sentences her e John Dewey embodies many of the matter-of-fact ideals that define American doctrine. He was born around the clip that Charles Darwin ‘s Origin of Species book came out, so the arguments environing that subject had a monumental influence on his doctrine. Along with many other American philosophers of Dewey ‘s clip, such as Charles Sanders Peirce, there was a desire to react to these new finds in evolutionary scientific discipline and happen out how they related to doctrine. Dewey believed that cognition was best discovered through the scientific method. As I will subsequently speak about, this is nowhere more prevailing than in Dewey ‘s theoretical account for instruction in which he defaults to hands-on experience and enquiry as the paramount key to larning. Traveling out into the existent universe and holding a unrecorded experience that could be tested and criticized by others in order to come on to something better was indispensable to Dewey ‘s position and a foundational belief of many American pragmatists. In the eyes of Dewey, instruction and life were one in the same. Dewey is quoted as stating, â€Å" instruction is a procedure of life and non a readying for future life † ( 8, My Pedagogic Creed ) . A proper instruction of the person was indispensable to the operation and growing of that person and the society they lived in, as school was foremost a â€Å" societal establishment. † School was to be centered on the community and the pupil was being developed in school so they could be an active member of the community. Dewey advocated that what a kid does in their place life should be incorporated into the course of study in the schoolroom. Besides for Dewey, the pupil had to be invested in their instruction for it to intend anything. The manner that he suggested this be accomplished was to allow the pupils learn about something they were interested in. An instruction could merely be valuable if the pupil was larning stuff that they could really use to their existent mu ndane life as evidenced by Dewey ‘s quotation mark, â€Å" True instruction comes through the stimulation of the kid ‘s powers by the demands of the societal state of affairss in which he finds himself † ( 2, My Pedagogic Creed ) . Dewey believed that instruction was a procedure of find where pupils would analyze what they were interested in at their ain gait as they were bit by bit going more cognizant of where their involvements laid. Dewey ‘s instruction system is possibly most good known for how it stresses the importance of â€Å" custodies on † experience in the acquisition procedure. Dewey believed that people learned best by traveling out and interactively â€Å" making. † Out were the yearss where instructors would talk on facts and information, coercing their thoughts onto the pupils. Dewey criticized instructors and the current instruction system for protecting pupils excessively closely and non allowing them travel out into the existent universe so they could bloom stating, â€Å" the state of affairs approaches larning to swim without traveling excessively near the H2O † ( The Relation of Theory to Practice, Dewey ) . For Dewey, a instructor ‘s occupation was more about being a facilitator to the pupils, assisting them discover what they were interested in and so making ways for them to actively ‘do ‘ these things. Ultimately for Dewey, larning grounded in ex perience combined with capable affair that was interesting and applicable to the pupil would take to a greater society. I think that both good and bad semen from John Dewey ‘s thoughts for instruction. First off, I like Dewey ‘s motion off from learning manners that stressed merely memorisation and the regurgitation of facts. Hands-on experience is a proved manner for pupils to larn. It is much more gratifying for the pupil and seems to be straight applicable to their hereafter. I besides agree with Dewey ‘s position that pupils should larn about something that involvements them. Stuffing facts that childs do non hold any desire to larn down their pharynxs is non good to anyone. When pupils can really link with the stuff they are larning, they are more likely to set in the clip and attempt that is necessary to to the full develop their cognition and apprehension of a topic. Lastly, I believe that it ‘s a good thought to concentrate your surveies in one peculiar country as it is really hard to get the hang a battalion of topics. I think it ‘s better to be highly adept in o ne topic than to hold an mean sum of cognition in multiple topics. This manner, everyone can pick an country of survey that involvements them and so, as a community, each individual can convey their one alone country of expertness to the tabular array and the remainder of the people that are n't as fluent in that topic can profit. With that being said, I think the preceding rules need to be applied in moderateness. While memorisation and repeat is non a perfect signifier of instruction, the consequences are difficult to reason with. I believe that there is something to be said for get the hanging a topic. For illustration, my major country of survey is accounting. It is one thing for me to acquire custodies on experience straight applicable to my major, but larning can non merely come through â€Å" playing † so to talk. I must first analyze all the foundational information that is out at that place. There are many people in the universe that are much more knowing on the topic than me and there are a batch of valuable things I can larn from them. Second, to be a successful comptroller, there are other nucleus topics that I must be competent in. For case, I need to be knowing in English to be able to pass on with my coworkers and I need to cognize math so I am able to calculate the expression required in accounting. There is a proved value in holding a rounded instruction. Learning about topics that may non straight use to your country of survey can profit you in many different ways. As an illustration, possibly it could sharpen your critical thought accomplishments. And on top of that, a pupil might believe they are non interested in a certain topic until they really take a category and larn about it. Hard work and long hours spent in the library-sometimes memorizing rules and formulas-is necessary for me to be a maestro of accounting, although I may non bask that work. To me, Dewey ‘s instruction system seems to promote jumping the chief class and traveling consecutive to dessert. I believe that I foremost need to get the hang the rules of accounting in order to merit a shooting of traveling out into the existent universe and really â€Å" making † accounting. Dewey stayed true to his matter-of-fact ideals by proving out his ain instruction theories in a real-life environment. He created what became to be known as his really ain â€Å" laboratory school. † Dewey ‘s school was radically different than any other of its clip. The pupils did non sit at desks and listen to a teacher talk or make homework jobs out of a text edition. Alternatively they would be traveling about the schoolroom making changing physical activities, such as run uping or cooking. As I stated earlier, Dewey believed that pupils could larn the critical accomplishments ( math and scientific discipline for illustration ) that they needed by making these types of activities alternatively of the more traditional â€Å" analyzing the text edition † method. The kids were broken down by age and every different age group was ever making something different. Dewey had the childs traveling on field trips, edifice theoretical accounts, moving out dramas, and pla ying games among many other â€Å" active † things. He preached that instructors should keep off on holding childs do things like reading and composing until the pupil found it necessary and appealing to make so ( Dewey Article, Enotes ) . Dewey ‘s school had its successes and failures and there is a batch that can be taken away his expansive â€Å" experiment. † While I do acknowledge that a batch of great instruction patterns were foremost developed at Dewey ‘s laboratory school, I can non assist but detect the cardinal defects that existed in it. If I was to use what Dewey showcased in his school to today ‘s universe of instruction, I think his system would neglect. The ground for this is first that Dewey seemed to be looking at instruction through â€Å" rose coloured spectacless † so to talk. In my sentiment, a theory on instruction should be able to use to any state of affairs. I think about what Dewey had put together in his school, where the place life was to a great extent incorporated into the category course of study. But, what about kids that come from broken places, as we see so frequently in today ‘s society? If a kid is being abused or enduring under the ticker of alcoholic parents, who could care less about their kid ‘s instruction, how would that suit into Dewey ‘s system? Dewey ‘s s chool would likely work good in a instance where a kid has really supportive parents that are highly interested in their kid ‘s instruction, but how frequently is that non the instance in today ‘s universe? Henry Perkinson, an writer and pedagogue at New York University, makes a remark about Dewey ‘s lab school stating, â€Å" Dewey ‘s educational doctrine depicts a school or school endeavor that ne'er existed and likely ne'er could be. To transport it out would necessitate superteachers and superstudents † ( Perkinson, ) . While I believe Dewey is taking instruction in the right way, I think he foremost needs to happen a manner to develop a theory on instruction that can use to each and every pupil. Another country that I merely ca n't hold with Dewey in is how he resorts to see as the primary manner for a pupil to larn. Without a uncertainty, I believe that his method of enquiry can add a batch to a pupil ‘s instruction. In his school, the childs were making so many astonishing things that I wish I could hold done in my old ages as a immature male child. But, looking at the large image, there seems to be so many things that a kid must larn over their life-time that they can non perchance detect and â€Å" make † everything. Yes, you can larn math when mensurating out the flour required to bake a bar, but can that signifier of math be applied to everything? There are other things out in the universe like mensurating liquids or numbering coins. How would one kid have the clip and the agencies to see every individual thing? I think that at some point, pupils will necessitate to utilize some signifier of memorisation of information or facts as a footing of cognition th at they can so utilize to larn about other things. A quotation mark from a parent that had a kid in Dewey ‘s school truly sums up this job stating, â€Å" We have to learn him how to analyze. He learned to ‘observe ‘ last twelvemonth † ( Storr, ) . I think that Dewey had the right thought, but he had everything backwards. First, the pupil should larn a foundation of cognition, from something like a text edition, and so they can travel out and experiment and use that cognition to existent mundane state of affairss. John Dewey was a great philosopher that made ground-breaking progresss in instruction. He was a adult male that practiced what he preached and for that I have great regard. I do like Dewey ‘s thoughts in doses. In the terminal, I think that a good balance of his â€Å" experiential acquisition † in combination with a disciplined survey of information and text edition is the best signifier of instruction. While his thoughts did hold their defects, the way that he took American instruction was for the better.

Be Able to Support Individuals to Use the Toilet

3. Be able to support individuals to use the toilet 3. 1 Provide support for the individual to use toilet facilities in ways that respect dignity 1. Offer the individual a help. 2. If the individual is not able to transfer by itself help him/her to transfer however encourage using their own strength as much as he/she is able in order to promote their independency. 3. When the individual is sitting on the toilet cover his/her private area with for example towel to respect their dignity. 4.Ask if they the individual needs some privacy, if it is save to live the individual by him/herself on the toilet inform that you are going to wait outside the toilet and when finish he/she can call you. In the situation when it is not safe to live the individual on the toilet, you can respect their privacy by turning around. 5. Do not make any comments which would make them feel uncomfortable. 3. 2 Support individual to make themselves clean and tidy after using toilet facilities Most of the service users at my work place require full support after using a toilet. However, we remained them to wash their hand after using the toilet.Those service users who are not able to wash their hands by themselves are supported by staff members. The service users who do not need a support with using the toilet are remanded to use it and to remember to wash their hands. 6. Be able to monitor and report on support for personal care 6. 1 Seek feedback from the individual and others on how well support for personal care meets the individual’s needs and preferences 1. Read Care Plans. 2. Ask the individual if the currently used methods meet their preferences. 3. Ask the individual if they would like to make any changes which would make their personal care more convenient, comfortable or njoyable. 4. Discuss with staff members how they can improve the support of the individual in order to meet their needs and preferences. 5. Upgrade Care Plans on the regular basis. 2. 2 Be able to contribut e to establishing the nature of specific communication needs of individuals and ways to address them Establishing the nature of specific communication: 1. Talk to family members to find the way how the individual used to communicate with them. 2. If the individual hasn’t got any family members read the care plan if any exists. 3. Observe the individual. 4. If the individual is verbal just talk to them.The ways to address: 1. Talk to them. 2. Give them choice. 3. Ask them showing the pictures. 4. Learn non verbal language (makaton) 5. Communication passport (for example a picture of service user when is happy, angry or sad). 6. Showing the trust by seeking the contact with support members (for example grabbing the hand, not ignoring when being asked). 2. 3 Explain how and when to access information and support about identifying and addressing specific communication needs When: 1. When the individual is new at the house. 2. When the individuals condition is getting worse How: 1 .Care Plan 2. Communication Passport 3. Family 4. Speech and Language Therapist 5. Basic information tables placed in each room 6. Know how to support the use of communication technology and aids 3. Explain the importance of ensuring that communication equipment is correctly set up and working properly This is important because it is necessary to know how to communicate with service users in order to meet their needs. It prevents unnecessary misunderstanding and follows it anxiety and irritation of service users. As such it decreases the possibility of provoking a challenging behaviour.

Component Program Strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Component Program Strategy - Assignment Example The question can be about the eligibility of welfare while one lives with another biological parent. Another instance is the case of Florida’s FTP program where there is asking of a single question about whether there is a limit to which one can receive cash benefits (Statewide wetlands strategies: A guide to protecting and managing the resource, 1992). In addition, one can also make use of multiple questions to enhance the smooth development of the outcome components of a program. The multiple question strategy differs across the various question levels. For instance, the first multiple question strategy can measure the program knowledge level in a different way with each independent question and make a separate analysis of each question. There is also the two-tier questions strategy that measures the familiarity with the program. The other strategy assesses the understanding of detailed rules. For example, the use of questions with two sets for every welfare incentive program in which the leading question makes inquiries about the familiarity and eligibility suitable for receiving of incentives. Ultimately, the second set is where the questions inquire about the details of rules pertaining the eligibility requirements (Frechtling, National Science Foundation, Directorate for Education and Human and Resources & Westat, Inc., 1995) . From the foregoing, it follows that the questioning method in ensuring the good development of a reliable outcome of any program. Therefore, researchers should work towards ensuring the best strategy is applicable at any given moment to ensure that the outcomes are worth implementing for the benefit of the users. Good outcomes have the possibility ensuring that evaluations are detailed and up to date all the time. According to Nam (2008), questioning qualifies as the best strategy for ensuring the development of outcome components of the best program.

Discussion 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

Discussion 4 - Essay Example Hence, it might be stated that the introduction of cloud computing came into limelight mainly to fulfil the requirements or utilities of the individual in this advanced age. As a result of which, the process of attainment of varied essential information became extremely faster and quicker than before (Jamsa, 2011). However, it also includes varied types of issues such as control or managing problems, performance or reliability trouble, security, cost of bandwidth, vendor lock-In, transparency, reliability and final thoughts. But among all these above mentioned issues, the most note-worthy challenges are security and performance among others (Furht & Escalante, 2010). After reading the paragraph and watching the video, I totally agree that, utility is the main driving force that fascinated the customers towards the concept of cloud computing or advanced technology. This is surely a revolutionary move that fuelled the utilities of the customers or business enterprises. As a result of this technological change, the business entrepreneurs may very easily cope-up with the changing requirements of the customers that might enhance the reputation and reliability of the brand to a certain extent. Not only this, cloud computing also enabled the facility of accessing various information or facts at any time from their office locations thereby reducing their work-load. Therefore, due to all these facilities, the concept of cloud computing became extremely popular and eminent in this rapidly changing market among other techniques. In spite of various advantages, cloud computing also comprises of numerous pitfalls or issues such as control problem, performance or reliability issue, security, cost of bandwidth, vendor lock-In issue, transparency and reliability problems. However, among all these issues, the most challenging one is the trouble of security. This is because, in case the valuable data or information about the total sale of the

Women and Health Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Women and Health - Assignment Example However, maybe due to the fact that they often compete with the opposite sex to be treated as equal, women of recent generations have neglected their well-being. Changed lifestyle has contributed a number of ailments to women that could affect their health during their childbearing years. There are prenatal screenings being offered to pregnant women to ensure the health and well-being of the child they are carrying. Also, couples are being offered screenings to know their so-called genetic compatibility or incompatibility to know the ratio of having a healthy and normal child. There would be instances that screenings would be disregarded by parents at some point and say that they would accept their child in whatever health condition they might be in whether at birth or at the course of their lives. What parents or future parents should consider is that, if they would not undergo screenings and their child would be suffering from a certain ailment, they as parents are disregarding the right of a child to grow up with a healthy body and be accepted in the society. One should accept that though as advanced and liberal the society might be there are still instances that physically and/or mentally challenged children suffer from discrimination almost their whole lifetime ( South-Paul, et al., 2004; Karpin & Savell, 2012). Another hindrance that might occur for prenatal screenings would be culture. There are aspects of the beliefs of ethnic groups and population where pregnancy or the child that is still in the womb is considered as sacred or should not be disturbed. This is an aspect which can be the topic of debates for years and decades, however, would still end up into nothingness. However, this should not be the case. There should be scholars from the medical field to address or enlighten these ethnic groups. Prenatal and even newborn screenings are not done to step on their traditions and cultures; these are done to ensure the future and well-being of the next generations and the generations to come after them.  Ã‚  

How the French in the United States View the Americans Essay

How the French in the United States View the Americans - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that considering the different historical economic affiliations of France and United States, citizens from these two countries have different opinions concerning social, economic and political views of each other. France is known to have supported communism ideologies while the United States supported capitalism hence the different perspectives held by the citizens of both countries. To start with, according to the reading, money is described as the ultimate value in America. This is because people who make fortune in America are very respectable compared to those in France. In America, it does not matter how the rich make money, whether, in suspicious or genuine ways, the fact remains that the rich are respectable and are seen as hardworking citizens. On the other hand, the French do not value money greatly. They only require money for their survival and having a lot of money does not earn people respect in France. Secondly, the work cultu re is different in the two countries. According to the reading, the Americans are strict in terms of time management, execution of commands and also limit social associations at workplaces. This is in contrast with the French people who have relaxed rules at their workplace and encourage social relations. Thirdly, the choice of food is different in the two countries. According to the reading, Americans like to have fast foods as opposed to the French who enjoy having quality meals. This is shown by the increased number of fast food restaurants in America.

Herbert Hoover Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Herbert Hoover - Article Example The Efficiency Movement of the United States, was a major part of the Progressive Era. The ideology championed by those who supported this movement, was that the society, government and the economy contained unwanted elements that bogged things down. In order to cleanse the system, experts must be appointed to identify the errors and to fix them. Hoover was a prominent figure who championed this movement. He held the view that the economy could be fixed and made better by coming up with technical solutions. However, it so happened that the Great Depression started in 1929, during the first year of Hoover's tenure as President. Since his ideology that the economy could be fixed, could not work in such a situation, he was the centre of criticism and mistrust. Herbert Hoover was a reformer and believed in improving the condition of livelihood of the citizens. He denounced the laissez-faire system and believed in regulating bills through Congress. In addition to this, he also supported volunteerism.

Geopolitical profile Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Geopolitical profile - Essay Example ty to project its power across the globe and it is mainly as a result of this that it has been able to retain its influence long after falling from its superpower status. Russia is the largest country in the world with its borders stretching from northern Europe across northern Asia to the Bering Straits. As the largest country in the world, with an area of 17,075,400 square kilometres, it is one of the few countries in the world that have a diversity of natural resources, people, as well as neighbouring countries. The result is that this country has come to exert a lot of influence over a large territory as well as its neighbours for centuries. Its geographical position is unique because it allows it to wield some influence on three continents as well as being able to project itself militarily. Russia incorporates a wide range of climates and environments within its territory and these have had an effect on its historical development. Moreover, this country has borders with a diverse number of countries including China, Norway, Lithuania, Finland, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the United States across the Bering Straits, among many others. The geographical position of this country has also placed it on top of the largest oil and gas reserves on the planet and this country has been able to ensure that this resource is used to further its geopolitical power over the Eurasian region. In addition to oil and natural gas, Russia has other significant resources which include deposits of timber, coal, and as well as mineral resources that have given it an advantage over other countries in the region. As the largest producer of natural gas in the world, Russia is in a unique position to determine the futures of some of its neighbouring countries, most of which were former member states of the Soviet Union. It is through its unique position as being the number one producer of natural gas, in addition to oil, that it has been able to ensure that it maintains its influence over the

President Bush and President Clinton Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

President Bush and President Clinton - Essay Example ar threat from North Korea , blown open the federal budget deficit, presided over economic recession and weakness, overseen an historic gap between corporate profits and worker compensation, and ignored menacing environmental issues such as pollution and global warming. There is no doubt that Bill Clinton was a far superior leader and far more worthy of the respect, admiration and gratitude of Americans. The reputation of the United States is the first area in which the difference between Bush and Clinton is stark. Under Clinton, the United States respected multilateral agreements, sought consensus among the international community on matters of great import, projected the power of the United States in a non-arrogant manner, and respected human rights. For example, Clinton pursued and successfully achieved treaties that grew and strengthened international trade, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). He also helped negotiate the Kyoto Protocol against global warming. In addition, he utilized U.S. military power when necessary and within the context of NATO, as was the case in Kosovo. Because of his active solicitation of and respect for the opinions and influence of other nations, the United States enjoyed a high degree of respect and admiration throughout the world. On the contrary, Bush has led the U.S. to an all-time low in its image abroad. Virtually from the beginning of his presidency, he has pursued an all-out assault on the international progress that took eight years to achieve during the Clinton administration. He immediately backpedaled on security assurances that had been made to North Korea, effectively provoking that country to resume nuclear weapons development and causing them to return to caustic anti-American propaganda and posturing. In addition, he pulled out of the Kyoto accord on global warming, effectively leaving much of the rest of the world high and dry when it comes

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay Example for Free

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain juxtaposes Huck’s adventurous and liberating journey along with Jim on the raft down the river Mississippi with the corrupt life that allows unconscious acceptance to the values of society on the shore. The novel unfolds Huck’s inner mind and records his learning and moral development as he encounters morally corrupt and crooked people on his journey to freedom. The novel contrasts between the constricting life on the shore and the freedom offered by the journey on the river.    Though Huck’s raft follows the river towards its downward journey, he goes against the stream in his life learning on his own the hard realities of life. Huck finds the two wealthy sisters Widow Douglas and Miss Watson, who adopt him, as the true representatives of the society that is based on hypocritical religious and ethical values. Though Widow Douglas is more patient and gentle towards Huck, he finds her care and concern quite restrictive. When she puts him in new clothes he could do nothing but feel cramped sweating a lot. He does not find any meaning in prayer before the dinner and in the stories of Moses and the Bulrushers who were dead long time ago. Though the life in the care of Widow Douglas is decent and dignified, cozy and comfortable, Huck does not like it much. He feels his old ways of living are the best. Living in a house and sleeping in a bed pulled on me pretty tight mostly, but before the cold weather I used to slide out and sleep in the woods sometimes, and so that was a rest to me. I liked the old ways Best. (Twain 13) He finds Miss Watson’s attempts to ‘sivilize’ him most annoying. For him, she is the best example of severe and unforgiving laws of Christian life which are against his individual freedom. He feels â€Å"Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome†.   He is so vexed with the ways of living under the care of Miss Watson that he feels one night quite depressed and feels â€Å"I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead.†   (Twain 5) When Miss Watson insists that he should pray he can not find any reason to pray when his prayers are not answered by God. When he asks her to try for him she calls him a fool. Huck tries several times in his own way asking God for the things he wanted, but he could not find any response from God. He finds it quite impractical. He does not find any advantage for him in praying for others as told by Widow. He finds a lot of difference between Widow and Miss Watson who both pray and teach the same things to him about Providence. The following lines best illustrate his understanding of his two guardians who differ a lot in their attitude. I judged I could see that there was two Providences, and a poor chap would stand considerable show with the widow’s Providence, but if Miss Watson’s got him there warn’t no help for him any more. (Twain 11) Huck’s father, Pap, an incorrigible wreck with his disgusting and ghostlike appearance in tattered clothes, represents the generally debased white society and the failed family. Pap, who is always after the money earned by Huck, feels jealous of his son’s education when his son is living with Widow Douglas and going to school. He not only kidnaps his son but also virtually imprisons him in a cabin in the woods and beats him completely drunk. In fact, he proves dangerous and provides the immediate and most potent cause for Huck’s escape from the society on the shore. On the contrary, he finds a trusting and caring surrogate father in Jim who accompanies him in his escape from the shore. Jim, a runaway slave from the house of Miss Watson, stands for strong family relationship, nobility and loyalty. He takes the extreme step of running away from Miss Watson’s house as he suspects he would be sold for another master which will eventually separate him from his family. Though he seems superstitious and ignorant, he is an intelligent man with a deep understanding of human life. Jim he was right; he was most always right; he had an uncommon level head for a nigger. (Twain 55). There is a strong bond of friendship and understanding between Huck and Jim on the raft. Both are desperately in need of protecting themselves from the selfish people in the society. The raft on the river Mississippi provides them an opportunity to save their lives. It offers them the much needed freedom. The following passage aptly conveys their dire need to run away from society. I was powerful glad to get away from the feuds, and so was Jim to get away from the swamp. We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft. (Twain 83) The life on the raft is different in many ways from the life that is found on the shore. The raft provides them not only as escape from the corrupt and selfish people, but also an opportunity to be what they are and to do what they like. It gives them a unique opportunity to explore their true identity and their stand in relation to many things in life. They are closest to their true nature on the raft in the lovely and mighty presence of the river and the woods. It offers them unrestricted and uninhibited freedom. Huck feels happy and liberated on the raft and expresses the same in the following words: It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened. (Twain 84) Twain has brilliantly contrasted the plight of a white boy with that of a slave Jim. The story of the novel revolves around these two characters that are almost in the same boat with similar problems. As luck would have it, they share the same raft in their escape for freedom. Huck finds Jim’s presence on the raft comforting and supportive as Jim is practical, intelligent and trustworthy though, at times, he seems sentimental. Jim not only cooks food for Huck but also protects him from dangers. Jim’s acts of selflessness and his longing to meet his family have left an indelible impression on Huck. Huck is very determined till the end to save Jim and to get him free. However, the life on the raft is not without its share of dangers and threats. Huck and Jim get separated when their raft is hit by a steamer in the river. Huck’s encounter with the family of Grangerfords exposes him to pretentious importance that people attach to their family’s honor or prestige. Huck suspects behind the kindhearted and gentle people in the family, there is an unreasonable feud between them and the Shepherdsons. It makes no sense to Huck. Many of the people belonging to these families die in a bitter gun fight from which Huck luckily escapes. After facing many challenging situations Huck and Jim once again continue their journey on the raft further towards the south. The two con artists who ask for help and seek refuge on the raft prove dangerous to Huck in the end. The two con artists involve in various crimes at times claiming to be the descendants of royal family and sometimes, pretending to be great actors and evangelists. They once again remind the crookedness of the people in the society on the shore. The raft has proved an excellent place to enjoy the perfect freedom and bliss without any interference. Though Jim is there with him all the time, he is silent and provided a good company with his accommodating nature. Huck enjoys Jim’s company and the journey most. He expresses his happiness saying, It was kind of solemn, drifting down the big, still river, laying on our backs looking up at the stars, and we didn’t ever feel like talking loud, and it warn’t often that we laughed — only a little kind of a low chuckle. (Twain 47) The long journey on the raft has provided Huck with many opportunities to learn new things and develop his own logic. Every challenge he faces presents him with an opportunity to think about it deeply and to come to a conclusion which he feels right. His association with Jim on the raft has given him opportunity to think clearly and form his own opinion without any interference. He prefers to follow his own instinct and logic than to accept the unquestioned conventions of the society.   Huck’s determination to save Jim when he is caught demonstrates his maturity and broadness of understanding. Huck has to undergo an internal struggle to overcome some of the notions that have been ingrained in him by the society. Every time Huck faces a problem he applies his mind and comes out with a decision what he feels right, though it might look wrong and offending to the white community. He takes help from Tom Sawyer in rescuing Jim finally. Huck loses his faith in the society that has failed to protect him. Though the Widow tried her best to give him what he has missed, it has proved imperfect to mould him. His growing distance from the society makes him skeptical about it. His natural intelligence and his ability to think through a situation have enabled him to form his own right conclusions. Thus, he creates his own rules and develops his character throughout the journey. Twain depicts the society around Huck with people who are degraded in their values. The actions of these people defy logic and commonsense. For example, when the judge allows Pap, the wreck and disgusting drunkard, to keep custody of Huck, he gives more importance to the right of ownership than to the welfare of the innocent boy. It clearly depicts the social system that has fallen in its moral standing. It highlights the white man’s rights over his property whether it is a slave or a son. The Mississippi River plays the most important role in the novel providing freedom and refreshing experience to Huck and Jim who are in their quest for freedom. They travel from their home town St. Petersburg, Missouri, north of St. Louis, hundreds of miles into the Deep South.   The odyssey down the river lends the story a mystic element offering contentment to the people who come in search of freedom. The river with its power and grandeur sets a meaningful background to the story that contrasts life on the river with the life on the shore. The river plays the role of liberating influence on the two characters Huck and Jim. It is the only place where they can feel at home though they are on a raft. Huck arrives at the conclusion that the idyllic life, peace and brotherhood of himself and Jim have given him more satisfaction and a sense of freedom and understanding as opposed to the inhumanity, the feud and the degenerated values of society. Thus, it is a journey in search of understanding and freedom leaving behind the so called ‘sivilization’ that destroys innocence and enslaves human beings. In short, Huck’s journey is from unthinking acceptance of received values and knowledge to an independently achieved understanding of what is right. It is journey from boyhood to manhood, from servitude to freedom. T. S. Eliot, the great English poet and critic of the twentieth century who also grew up on the banks of the same river says, â€Å"the river makes the book a great book† It has fired the imagination of the boy Huck and became the only real home for him. Reference Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/twain/huckfinn.pdf

Security Threats to Banking

Security Threats to Banking INTRODUCTION The research project was undertaken to discover security threats and vulnerabilities experienced in First National Bank Botswana organization and how they mitigate them, this was carried out with the intention of making better and appropriate recommendations to combat them in the future and strengthen their information system and innovate some of their services for better competitive advantage and customer satisfaction. FIRST NATIONAL BANK BOTSWANA BACKGROUND First National Bank Botswana was registered in 1991, as a wholly owned subsidiary of First National Bank Holdings (Botswana). Various acquisitions led to the bank becoming a listed entity on the Botswana Stock Exchange in 1993. Today, they have shifted from being a bank with a predominantly retail focus to one that also successfully services the commercial and corporate market. Today products and services of First National Bank Botswana cover the requirements of everyone, from large corporate companies to small businesses and the individual. As at January 2008, we operate with a network of 17 branches and a total of 89 ATMs around the country. A strong customer focused culture ensures that our products are correctly packaged and accessible to all. https://www.fnbbotswana.co.bw/aboutus/index.html accessed on the 30 March 2010. MISSION To be recognised by all as the most well respected and most profitable leading financial services institution of first choice, building enduring and rewarding relationships with all our customers and amongst all stakeholders through the provision of exceptional customer service well skilled professionalism, reliable and efficient innovative products and solutions by our high achieving, motivated, proud and committed team, enabling us to get and keep customers. VISION We collaborate, support and empower each other through the consistent application of our aligned strategies and shared values, delivering maximum value to our customers and sharing the customer so as to add further value to them. Through this, we get and keep customers. CURRENT MARKET SITUATION ANALYSIS Currently the world was going through recession each and every organization across the globe felt the impact of the economic meltdown. Despite global recession and tough competition from competitors like Barclays bank, Standard chartered, Stabic bank and Bank Gaborone etc, First National Bank Botswana proved to be the most innovative bank in Botswana and it made profit unlike Barclays bank sales which had gone down, this shows that FNBB had increase in sales and market share. According to Imara report, September 2009, FNBB had a growth in turnover; the bank posted a strong set of results despite operating in a challenging business environment. Net interest income grew by 30.6% to P522.90 million (FY08: P400.25 million) mainly driven by a 17.0% increase in loans and advances. Profit before tax and profit after tax increased by 19.5% to P536.90 million and 8.7% to P406.72 million respectively. SIGNIFICANT MARKET SHARE According to Analyst Setlhabi P, 2009 FNBB is one of the leading banks in Botswana with the largest market share in terms of deposits (29.7%) and 2nd largest in terms of loans and advances (27.3%) after Barclays Bank Botswana. The pie chart above shows that FNBB has more market share in Botswana compared to other banks in Botswana. In terms of technology advancement and Information system FNBB is the most innovative bank, it was the first bank to provide internet and cell phone banking in Botswana to customers and it is currently the only listed bank providing cell phone banking services. In a bid to reach the unbanked market, First National Bank of Botswana has launched its new cell phone banking service, enabling banking activities such as balance enquiries, statement requests and the ability to make payments to third parties. Due to advancement in technology and Information system its market share has grown tremendously. FNBB SWOT ANALYSIS Below is a table showing the swot analysis of the First National Bank Botswana, from the table it shows that the bank has more strength, good opportunities than weakness and threats which is really good. PREVIOUS SYSTEM The previous system was manual based before introducing this advanced system, though they had computers nothing was automated customers had to go to the physical bank to deposit money, pay the bills and some of the important information was recorded on papers which can get lost or stolen easily. The system was costly to the bank because they had to use a lot of materials e.g. papers to record information and print the bank statement for customers and you would find that there will be long queues at the bank during the week. Customers could not dream buying items online, they manual system was time consuming and somehow hindered the growth of the FNBB market share. Customers who wanted to open accounts with the bank had to fill the application form, submit and wait for seven working days for their application to be processed and account to be opened. There was nothing like transferring the fund to third party account or interbank transfer the customer had to do it manual at the bank teller or cashier counter. CURRENT SYSTEM (S) The bank has several current information systems in place which has enhanced its performance and productivity resulting in customer satisfaction and convenience hence customer loyalty to FNBB. According to Mr. Edwin M FNBB have the following information systems in use. Online Banking Customers can access the bank account anywhere, anytime as long they have internet access where there are, and they can do any transaction; paying bills, buy online, view balance, bank statement and transfer funds to third party. Cell Phone Banking Now with cell phone banking in place customer do not need to be behind a computer doing transaction, they can access their funds/ bank account by using their mobile phones which is more convenient, fast and user friendly. Its new cell phone banking service, enabling banking activities such as balance enquiries, statement requests and the ability to make payments to third parties. The service is accessible through any handset in Botswana and uses SMS or a menu-based technology for customers to complete their banking transactions, increasing mass market reach and adding functionality to First National Bank of Botswanas (FNBB) offerings. The new FNB Cell phone banking offering is a natural extension from the pioneering beginnings of the in Contact service, said Yolisa Lejowa, FNBB head of electronic banking. Initially the service will only be available on the Mascom network but we envisage activating FNB Cell phone banking on the Orange network as well, shortly. By introducing these systems the bank has saved a lot of money which would be used for stationery in the manual system and the bank saw a great positive impact on their daily activities, long queues is the thing of the past, productivity, efficiency and market share has increased. New customers can even apply for bank accounts online without going to the bank as long as they provide valid details; everything will be processed within a short period of time. Now customers have the bank virtual bank with them wherever they go. Some of the Information systems are; Transaction Processing system Human resource Management system Executive management system INFORMATION RESOURCE AND CONTROL According www.datamonitor.com head of electronic banking (chief information officer) at FNBB has a critical role and responsible for the entire security of the organization, plan and implement technology advancement and innovations to ensure that FNBB stays atop of the market in the banking industry in Botswana. The Electronic bank head critical evaluate the security systems ability to protect bank and customer data. According to Eddie M in interviews response stated that chief information officer overlook the entire organization information system, to ensure that all resources are utilized within the budget and enforce higher security in the system to ensure business continuity. This is achieved by defining, updating, implementing IT strategy and align IT objectives and programs to enterprise objectives and strategies. By applying the above critical roles result in data privacy and confidentially, data integrity, authentication, non-repudiation. The head of electronic banking of FNBB set security privileges in the organization to ensure that certain areas and information is only accessed by authorized personnel or user. He carries out and enforces comprehensive security policy in the organization. According to www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/1999/FIL9968b.doc A comprehensive information security policy should outline a proactive and ongoing program incorporating three components; Prevention Detection Response E-banking services must be delivered on a consistent and timely basis in accordance with high customer expectations for a constant and rapid availability and potential high transaction demand. The bank must be able to deliver online banking services to all end-users and be able to maintain such availability in all circumstances. ORGANISATION SECURITY SYSTEM RISK System risk is a potential problem, situation that if it materializes, may adversely affect the business operation or system operation. http://www.pathways.cu.edu.eg/ . According to Eddie M 26 March 2010 Interviews. The use of information system which is online banking and cell phone banking has brought some risks and threats which are as follows; information theft, hacking of the system, System Failure due to hardware problem or power failure even software crushing, backup gets corrupted sometimes. The above table summarizes the system risks that exist with the use of information system; some of the risks are intentional were the user or unauthorized person get to do some modification in the system database/ some system components which will compromise availability or integrity of the data produced, processed. Some of the threats are accidental where by the user discloses his/her online banking details leading to account hacking and money theft. Network malfunction/ interruption is one of the major threats, sometimes network hardware components fails leading to break of data transfer between computers and servers leading to online system been unable to function normal (down). Electricity blackout its a major concern in Botswana because it happens more often resulting in online banking and cell phone banking being inaccessible during the period, as cell phone network goes down during electricity blackout and some electronics components tends to fails as well leading to system failure as information systems are comprised of different electronics components. All the above mentioned system risks and threats are the main faced by First National Bank Botswana. SYSTEM RISK MITIGATION To mitigate risks and threats board of directors and the head of electronic banking must ensure that appropriate security control processes are in place for online banking. (FNBB Report, 2009). To deal with this risks authorization privileges and authentication measures, logical and physical access control, adequate infrastructure security to maintain appropriate boundaries and restriction on both external user activities and data integrity of transactions, record and information should be implemented in the bank. http://www.bis.org/publ/bcbs98.htm. SECURITY CLOSED CIRCUIT TELEVISION (CCTV) CCTV is used to capture and monitor all customer and employee activities inside and outside the bank building for security reasons. Youll find CCTVcameras sweeping the perimeter and parking areas, lobbies, drive-up windows and ATMS. Almost everyone who has worked in the banking industry and many customers has used CCTV to prevent and/or identify illegal activity at banking facilities. Video tapes and digital recordings capture the faces and activities of everyone using bank properties. (Pirraglia W). The captured recordings are archived bydate, so prior recordings can be located and used to solve problems and help apprehend perpetrators of illegal bank activity. Most of the banks around the world have cctv installed in their buildings and around ATM terminals, so FNBB use CCTV for the same purpose as explained above, all of their building are monitored by CCTV.

Student-Centered Learning Essay -- Education Students Educational Pape

Student-Centered Learning Student-centered learning is a broad teaching approach that encompasses replacing lectures with active learning, integrating self-paced learning programs and/or cooperative group situations, ultimately holding the student responsible for his own advances in education. Student-centered learning environments have a heightened advantage over the traditional teacher-centered, subject-centered environment in that they provide complimentary activities, interactive in nature, enabling individuals to address their own learning interests and needs and move forward into increasingly complex levels of content to further their understanding and appreciate subject matter. The student-centered learning environment has the student need satisfaction as its primary focus whereas the subject-centered environment has the transmission of a body of knowledge as the primary focus (Clasen & Bowman, 1974, p. 9). Student-centered learning, when used properly, can change the face of education into a life- long learning process in which the student seeks solutions to problems without complete dependency upon an instructor. The student learns to reason on his own to find a foundation for venturing out with successful experiences under his belt. The learning environment concept has been around for some time. Its roots can be traced back to "early apprenticeship, Socratic, and similar movements that have sought to immerse individuals in authentic learning experiences, where the meaning of knowledge and skills are realistically embedded" (Land & Hannafin, 1996, p. 396). As immigrants flooded the United States, educators sought methods of education for the masses and the creation of a universal, or national system. The fa... ..., Hill, J. R., & Land, S. M. (Winter 1997). Student-centered learning and interactive multimedia: status, issues, and implications. Contemporary Education, 68, 2, 94-97. Land, S. M., & Hannafin, M. J. (1996). Student-centered learning environments: foundations, assumptions, and implications. Proceedings of selected research and development presentations at the 1996 national convention of the association for educational communications and technology. (pp. 396-402). Indianapolis: Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Land, S. M., & Hannafin, M. J. (May 1997). The foundations and assumptions of technology-enhanced student-centered learning environments. Instructional Science, 25, 3, 167-202. Warmkessel, M. M., & McCade, J. M. (Spring 1997). Integrating information literacy into the curriculum. Research Strategies, 15, 2, 80-88.

Influences on Huck in Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberyy Finn Essay

Influences on Huck in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberyy Finn Throughout the incident on pages 66-69 in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck fights with two distinct voices. One is siding with society, saying Huck should turn Jim in, and the other is seeing the wrong in turning his friend in, not viewing Jim as a slave. Twain wants the reader to see the moral dilemmas Huck is going through, and what slavery ideology can do to an innocent like Huck. Huck does not consciously think about Jim's impending freedom until Jim himself starts to get excited about the idea. The reader sees Huck's first objection to Jim gaining his freedom on page 66, when Huck says, "Well, I can tell you it made me all over trembly and feverish, too, to hear him, because I begun to get it through my head that he was most free-and who was to blame for it? Why, me. I could get that out of my conscience, no how nor no way." Huck is hearing the voice of society at this point, not his own. He does not see a moral dilemma with Jim being free; he is opposed to the fact that he is the one helping him. This shows Huck misunderstanding of slavery. Huck does not treat Jim like a slave when they travel together, this shows the reader that Huck views Jim as an equal in most ways. Huck sees having a slave only as owning the person, not actually being a slave to someone. Therefore, when he helps Jim runaway it would be like stealing. This conscience is telling him that Miss Watson, Jim?s master, never di...

Assessment of a Study of Transformational Leadership Essay -- social i

Assessment of a study of the relationship between transformational leadership, empowerment and organizational commitment Introduction and Purpose of Study The implications of transformational leadership on a firm’s employees and the success of the firm overall are areas of ongoing research according to Ismail, Mohamed, Sulaiman, Mohamad, and Yusuf (2011). The authors make the case that in a changing global environment transformational leadership styles, rather than transactional styles, are a means organizations are using to meet their strategies (p. 90). They argue previous research suggests that some aspects of transformational leadership, such as empowerment, may motivate the followers to unite, change their own goals, and even look beyond their own self-interest to achieve the organization’s interest (p. 90). Thus, the use of a transformational style may impact employee outcomes, especially organizational commitment resulting in increased organizational performance. According to Ismail et al. (2011, p. 91), despite studies showing this important relationship, there is insufficient explanation of how and why transf ormational leadership affects organizational commitment. Their study begins to address the shortfall by studying the mediating effects of empowerment on the relationship between the variables Transformational Leadership and Organizational Commitment. The assessment presented here focuses on the sampling methodologies used by the authors and argues that potential weaknesses in the methodologies limits the conclusions to something less than that which is presented by Ismail et al. (2011, pp. 100-101). This paper will have three following sections. First, there is a methods section to discuss the author... ... approaches rely on random sampling to draw inferences. As the sample drawn from the population becomes less random, the results become skewed, and conclusions become limited and should be viewed with skepticism. Thus, the results reported by Ismail et al. (2011) must be viewed with skepticism. References Burns, R. B., & Burns, R. A. (2008). Business research methods and statistics using SPSS. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Girden, E. R., & Kabacoff, R. I. (2011). Evaluating research articles: From start to finish (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Ismail, A., Mohamed, H. A., Sulaiman, A. Z., Mohamad, M. H., & Yusuf, M. H. (2011). An empirical study of the relationship between transformational leadership, empowerment and organizational commitment. Business & Economics Research Journal, 2(1), 89-106. Retrieved from http://www.berjournal.com

How Does R. Dahl Illustrate Conflict Between Appearance and Reality in 3 of the 5 Short Stories?

How does R. Dahl illustrate conflict between appearance and reality in 3 of the 5 short stories? The Landlady appears to be very nice, friendly and kind, which we can read in the text: â€Å"She was about forty-five or fifty years old†¦ she gave him a warm welcoming smile† and â€Å"she seemed terribly nice! †. As we follow the plot, the reality of her is that she is probably a serial killer and maybe has a psychic illness. The character of Mary Maloney is similar to the character of the Landlady. They’re both killers, but there is a little difference between them, because we think the Landlady is a serial killer and she prepares to kill him, as Mrs. Maloney didn’t really prepare to kill her husband, however she prepared to set up a convincing alibi. She gave a nip of whisky to every policeman: â€Å"Why don’t you have one yourself. You must be awfully tired. Please do. You’ve been very good to me. † And just after that, she offered the lamb, which she killed her husband with: â€Å"Why don’t you eat up that lamb that’s in the oven? . But there is another difference; the Landlady actually wants to kill the boy as Mrs. Maloney killed her husband by impulse. The appearance and reality of the Man from the South. He seems to be a rich, good looking person. That’s the first impression of him, he is wearing a suit: â€Å"Just then I noticed a small, oldish man walking briskly around the edge of the pool. He was immaculately d ressed in a white suit and he walked very quickly with little bouncing strides, pushing himself high up on to his toes with each step. He had on a large creamy Panama hat, and he came bouncing along the side of the pool, looking at the people and the chairs†, and just after that the reality comes: â€Å"He stopped beside me and smiled, showing two rows of very small, uneven teeth, slightly tarnished†. The culmination point of the appearance and the reality in the Lamb to the Slaughter is when Patrick Maloney did an unusual thing: â€Å"He lifted the glass and drained it in one swallow although there was still half of it, at least half of it, left†. Their household appears to represent a domestic ideal- comfortable, middle-class, with a traditional division of responsibility, ordered and strong on routine: â€Å"Now and again she would glance up at the clock, but without anxiety, merely to please herself with the thought that each minute gone by made it bearer the time when he would come† and â€Å"When the clock said ten minutes to five, she began to listen, and few moments later, punctually as always she heard the tyres on the gravel outside, and the car door lamming, the foot-steps passing the window, the key turning in the lock† which tells us, that she is waiting for him every day. She killed him by impulse, but then she set up a convincing alibi, and that’s the reality of her.

Things Fall Apart (Coming of White Men)

Thing Fall Apart Chinua Achebe Discuss how the coming of the White men makes Umuofia â€Å"fall apart†. Make reference to the religious, economic, political and social impact of the British culture on the traditions of the clan. As the novel opens, we get to know Umuofia, one of Igbo’s nine villages, as an organized but somehow different civilization. Chinua Achebe portrays life in this village as rough and harsh, conveying to the readers that only brave men would succeed in it. As said before, even though these civilizations are stereotyped and seen as primitive, we can clearly see that their lives are completely balanced between faith and order.It is actually astonishing to see how such a different way of life, to what we think and see as the normal life, may be as much or even more organized than ours. Even though both civilization are completely organized and function perfectly well, they could never live together in harmony. One would end up consuming the other as they were not meant to coexist. We may think we are educating and helping â€Å"uncivilized men†, but we are actually disintegrating their beliefs, their organization, their politics and their language. We are not aiding them, but destroying their religion and their society.We are, in other words, banishing their culture. A culture that will be lost forever. Hence, we may say, that in many ways the coming of White men made Umuofia â€Å"fall apart†. To begin with, the coming of the white men made Umuofia fell apart as their religion was greatly affected. The village of Umuofia was sustained by their beliefs and their gods, who criticized and punished the lazy men and those who were not worthy of worshipping them. Therefore the coming of a new monotheist and more peaceful religion brought huge changes in some of Umuofia’s most important traditions.These white men questioned most of Umuofia’s beliefs such as the dangers that inhabited the evil forest by set ting their livings there. This first action brought great controversy in the clan as people thought that whoever stayed in the forest for a certain period of time would painfully die. The resistance these white men showed to that â€Å"evil force† led many people to get interested in the new religion. People suddenly began questioning their own beliefs and traditions, questioning why they should venerate gods who were bound to punish, and not one God who was merciful towards humanity.The village divided in to those who remained steadfast to their traditions, and those who began to adopt the new ones. Society completely turned over after these events. Those who turned into Christianity were seen as the elite of the society. The clan was getting weaker and weaker every day, as more and more people turned into Christianity. The time soon come that the clansmen had not enough forces to control the missionaries. They should have reacted before, but only the exiled Okonkwo was brav e enough to face the white men.Hence, we may conclude that the imposition of a new religion severely damaged the village by, splitting it in two, reducing their forces and their willing to fight, and proving most of their beliefs false. Summarizing this, it massively weakened the most powerful and feared clan of the nine villages. Economically, Umuofia was also affected by the arrival of white men. Hitherto, Umuofia had presented us a hierarchical society, were men who showed to be brave, hard workers and strong enough, occupied the highest places in society, while lazy and unmanly men were found at the bottom of the pyramid.Since, the missionaries arrived, things turned around, the lazy and humble men who decided to accept and worship the new god began to get richer and richer, while the hard worker farmers were left behind. Money began circulating in the tribe but only those who turned into Christianity had it. Hence, no one interested in trading, and so, farmers were getting poor er every day. We may say that Umuofia was not destroyed economically but it was greatly affected, some suffered a lot of it, but some others were benefited by these changes. The arrival of the white men also led to massive changes in the village’s politics.They subjected the villagers to their own judicial system and rules, imposing an extremely different and harsh government over them. As white men didn’t respect nor understand the clan’s customs, many men were punished for following their â€Å"uncivilized† traditions. In chapter twenty one Okonkwo discusses with Obierika about Aneto, who was recently hanged by the government after he killed a man with whom he had a dispute. Clearly the new ruling system didn’t take into account old customs. It is completely correct actually, to punish a murderer, or any kind of criminal, but by doing so we are destroying their customs and their traditions.When Enoch unmasked an Egwugwu, considered to be the high est possible crime in Umuofia, the church did nothing, as again, they didn’t respect their customs. Unmasking an Egwugwu in Umuofia is as much or even more harsh than killing a man is for the white men, it can only be compared with killing a god. Once again, the new government doesn’t punish this event. This is a great example of how, Umuofia was left weak and subjected to the white men ruling. We can see now, that they are not trying to make Umuofia a more civilized village, but a more British one.Hence we may conclude that by imposing a new government who ignores their customs, the coming of the white men are making Umuofia fall apart. Finally, culturally Umuofia also fell apart thanks to the arrival of the white man. The new comers introduced a school, which taught their own rules, their beliefs, and their culture. They educated younger villagers that way, so that they could later control them more easily. They were kind of brain washed to believe and trust whatever they do. Education is not bad, of course, but they were not educating them to be better and more intelligent villagers, they were educating them to be other persons.They changed their minds. Young boys were dragged out of farming into the school. In other words, they were dragged out of their lives, from whom they really are. Another cultural change imposed by the white men were hospitals, we can’t say that’s something bad, but that is not how Umuofia is. When we say that it â€Å"fell apart†, we are not actually saying that everything went wrong for them, that all changes were bad. Some, like the introduction of hospitals in the tribe, were actually a massive improvement.Indeed, some of the politics imposed do try to make Umuofia a â€Å"safer† place, where killing is punished, and leaving twins in the forest to die is seen as an abomination. That’s perfectly fine, they may be improving in some ways their lives, but the culture, the old tradition s, their beliefs, everything was lost. Everything Umuofia was, suddenly banished. Everything it represented, their gods, their traditions, and their culture were destroyed. Nobody left to defend their customs, nobody left to respect them. Only memories were left of Okonkwo, Umuofia and their old lives. Everything Umuofia was†¦ fell apart.

Essay Topics for Mba Students

this is an Economics Case Study. Assignment Overview: This assignment is based on an article published in The Scandinavian Journal of Economics called ‘Neuroeconomics: Why Economics Needs Brains’, in 2004, Vol. 106, Issue 3, page 555-79. The article is already attached to this assignment question. Please read the article carefully before attempting this exercise. You will also need to draw on other resources available through the library as well as external resources. Please note that you need to provide clear references for your sources when citing research and data.Learning Objectives: This assignment is designed to encourage you to think about the application of concepts learned in this unit in a real world scenario. This assignment, indeed, is challenging as it raises a question to some of the fundamental assumptions behind the existing economic theories, for example, how rational (from your ? rst lecture) an economic agent is ! Economists are asking this question fo r a while and try to open up the ‘black-box’ by examining the brain mechanism to inform economic theory. 1 As a result the new discipline has emerged called Neuroeconomics.We hope that this assignment will expand the horizon of your thoughts in identifying the limitation of existing economic theories. Assessment: Your score on this assignment contributes towards 30% of your ? nal score for this unit. Although you can work in group, this is not a group assignment and you must submit answers individually. Please check the Academic Honesty and Misconduct section in the Unit Guide. You will be graded on your use of appropriate economic theory and concepts, the clarity of exposition and overall quality of your answers.Questions: Answer all questions. Limit the word count of your assignment to less than 3000. Please use diagrams in your answer when appropriate. 1. What is Neuroeconomics? Provide two examples that standard economics failed to explain but the Neuroeconomics can (examples have to be di? erent from those examples provided in our article). [6 marks] 2. Explain how di? erent lobes of a human brain are interconnected in response to your examples that you suggest for question 1. Which feature(s) of human brain function does work well in these examples? [6 marks] 3.What are the key assumptions of Neuroeconomics? How do they di? er as compared to standard economics? [6 marks] 4. Is it possible to explain Global Financial Crisis (GFC) with the help of Neuroeconomics? Explain. [6 marks] 5. Suppose, you are holding a senior marketing executive position in your company. Is it possible to use the knowledge of Neuroeconomics to promote the sales of your company? Explain. [6 marks] 2 Scand. J. of Economics 106(3), 555–579, 2004 DOI: 10. 1111/j. 1467-9442. 2004. 00378. x Neuroeconomics: Why Economics Needs Brains* Colin F. CamererCalifornia Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA [email  protected] caltech. edu George Loewenstein Carneg ie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA [email  protected] cmu. edu Drazen Prelec MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA [email  protected] edu Abstract Neuroeconomics uses knowledge about brain mechanisms to inform economic theory. It opens up the ‘‘black box’’ of the brain, much as organizational economics opened up the theory of the firm. Neuroscientists use many tools—including brain imaging, behavior of patients with brain damage, animal behavior and recording single neuron activity.The key insight for economics is that the brain is composed of multiple systems which interact. Controlled systems (‘‘executive function’’) interrupt automatic ones. Brain evidence complicates standard assumptions about basic preference, to include homeostasis and other kinds of state-dependence, and shows emotional activation in ambiguous choice and strategic interaction. Keywords: Behavioral economics; neuroscience; neuroeconomics; brai n imaging JEL classification: C91; D81 I. IntroductionIn a strict sense, all economic activity must involve the human brain. Yet, economics has achieved much success with a program that sidestepped the * We thank participants at the Russell Sage Foundation-sponsored conference on Neurobehavioral Economics (May 1997) at Carnegie-Mellon, the Princeton workshop on Neural Economics (December 2000) and the Arizona conference (March 2001). This research was supported by NSF grant SBR-9601236 and by the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, where the authors visited during 1997–1998.David Laibson’s presentation at the Princeton conference was particularly helpful, as were comments and suggestions from referees, John Dickhaut, Paul Zak, a paper by Jen Shang, and conversations with John Allman, Greg Berns, Jonathan Cohen, Angus Deaton, Dave Grether, Brian Knutson, David Laibson, Danica Mijovic-Prelec, Read Montague, Charlie Plott, Matthew Rabin, Peter Shizgal and St eve Quartz. # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 56 C. F. Camerer, G. Loewenstein and D. Prelec biological and cognitive sciences that focus on the brain, in favor of the maximization style of classical physics, with agents choosing consumption bundles having the highest utility subject to a budget constraint, and allocations determined by equilibrium constraints. Later tools extended the model to include utility tradeoffs with uncertainty and time, Bayesian processing of information, and rationality of expectations about the economy and about the actions of other players in a game.Of course these economic tools have proved useful. But it is important to remember that before the emergence of revealed preference, many economists had doubts about the rationality of choice. In 1925, Viner (pp. 373–374), lamented that ‘‘Human behavior, in general, and presumably, therefore, also in the market place, is not under the constant and detailed guidance of careful and accurate hedonic calculations, but is the product of an unstable and unrational complex of reflex actions, impulses, instincts, habits, customs, fashions and hysteria. ’ At the same time, economists feared that this ‘‘unstable and unrational complex’’ of influences could not be measured directly. Jevons (1871) wrote, ‘‘I hesitate to say that men will ever have the means of measuring directly the feelings of the human heart. It is from the quantitative effects of the feelings that we must estimate their comparative amounts. ’’ The practice of assuming that unobserved utilities are revealed by observed choices— revealed preference—arose as a last resort, from skepticism about the ability to ‘‘measure directly’’ feelings and thoughts. But Jevons was wr ong.Feelings and thoughts can be measured directly now, because of recent breakthroughs in neuroscience. If neural mechanisms do not always produce rational choice and judgment, the brain evidence has the potential to suggest better theory. The theory of the firm provides an optimistic analogy. Traditional models treated the firm as a black box which produces output based on inputs of capital and labor and a production function. This simplification is useful but modern views open the black box and study the contracting practices inside the firm—viz. , how capitalowners hire and control labor.Likewise, neuroeconomics could model the details of what goes on inside the consumer mind just as organizational economics models what goes on inside firms. This paper presents some of the basic ideas and methods in neuroscience, and speculates about areas of economics where brain research is likely to affect predictions; see also Zak (2004), and Camerer, Loewenstein and Prelec (2004) for more details. We postpone most discussion of why economists should care about neuroscience to the conclusion. # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. Neuroeconomics: why economics needs brains 557 II.Neuroscience Methods Many different methods are used in neuroscience. Since each method has strengths and weaknesses, research findings are usually embraced only after they are corroborated by more than one method. Like filling in a crossword puzzle, clues from one method help fill in what is learned from other methods. Much neural evidence comes from studies of the brains of non-human animals (typically rats and primates). The ‘‘animal model’’ is useful because the human brain is basically a mammalian brain covered by a folded cortex which is responsible for higher functions like language and long-term planning.Animal brains can also be deliberately damaged and stimulated, and their tissues studied. Many human physiological reactions can be easily measured and used to make inferences about neural functioning. For example, pupil dilation is correlated with mental effort; see Kahneman and Peavler (1969). Blood pressure, skin conductance (sweating) and heart rate are correlated with anxiety, sexual arousal, mental concentration and other motivational states; see Levenson (1988).Emotional states can be reliably measured by coding facial expressions and recording movements of facial muscles (positive emotions flex cheekbones and negative emotions lead to eyebrow furrowing); see Ekman (1992). Brain imaging: Brain imaging is the great leap forward in neuroscientific measurement. Most brain imaging involves a comparison of people performing different tasks—an ‘‘experimental’’ task E and a ‘‘control’’ task C. The difference between images taken during E and C shows what part of the brain is differentially activated by E.The oldest imaging method, electro-encephalogra m (or EEG) measures electrical activity on the outside of the brain using scale electrodes. EEG records timing of activity very precisely ($1 millisecond) but spatial resolution is poor and it does not directly record interior brain activity. Positron emission topography (PET) is a newer technique, which measures blood flow in the brain using positron emissions after a weakly radioactive blood injection. PET gives better spatial resolution than EEG, but poorer temporal resolution and is limited to short tasks (because the radioactivity decays rapidly).However, PET usually requires averaging over fewer trials than fMRI. The newest method is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). fMRI measures changes in blood oxygenation, which indicates brain activity because the brain effectively ‘‘overshoots’’ in providing oxygenated blood to active parts of the brain. Oxygenated blood has different magnetic properties from deoxygenated blood, which creates the sig nal picked up by fMRI. Unfortunately, the signal is weak, so drawing inferences requires repeated # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. 558 C. F. Camerer, G.Loewenstein and D. Prelec sampling and many trials. Spatial resolution in fMRI is better than PET ($3 millimeter3 ‘‘voxels’’). But technology is improving rapidly. Single-neuron measurement: Even fMRI only measures activity of ‘‘circuits’’ consisting of thousands of neurons. In single neuron measurement, tiny electrodes are inserted into the brain, each measuring a single neuron’s firing. Because the electrodes damage neurons, this method is only used on animals and special human populations (when neurosurgeons use implanted electrodes to locate the source of epileptic convulsions).Because of the focus on animals, single neuron measurement has so far shed far more light on basic emotional and motivational processes than on higher-level processes su ch as language and consciousness. Psychopathology: Chronic mental illnesses (e. g. , schizophrenia), developmental disorders (e. g. , autism), and degenerative diseases of the nervous system (e. g. , Parkinson’s Disease (PD)) help us understand how the brain works. Most forms of illness have been associated with specific brain areas. In some cases, the progression of illness has a localized path in the brain.For example, PD initially affects the basal ganglia, spreading only later to the cortex. The early symptoms of PD therefore provide clues about the specific role of basal ganglia in brain functioning; see Lieberman (2000). Brain damage in humans: Localized brain damage, produced by accidents and strokes, and patients who underwent radical neurosurgical procedures, are an especially rich source of insights; see e. g. Damasio (1994). If patients with known damage to area X perform a particular task more poorly than ‘‘normal’’ patients, the differen ce is a clue that area X is necessary to do that task.Often a single patient with a one-of-a-kind lesion changes the entire view in the field (much as a single crash day in the stock markets— October 19, 1987—changed academic views of financial market operations). For example, patient ‘‘S. M. ’’ has bilateral amygdala damage. She can recognize all facial expressions except fear; and she does not perceive faces as untrustworthy the way others do. This is powerful evidence that the human amygdala is crucial for judging who is afraid and who to distrust. ‘‘Virtual lesions’’ can also be created by ‘transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)’’, which creates temporary local disruption to brain regions using magnetic fields. III. Stylized Facts about the Brain We now review some basic facts about the brain, emphasizing those of special interest to economists. Figure 1 shows a ‘‘sagittal’à ¢â‚¬â„¢ slice of the human brain, with some areas that are mentioned below indicated. It has four lobes—from front to back (left to right, clockwise in Figure 1), frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal. The frontal lobe is thought to be the locus # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004.Neuroeconomics: why economics needs brains ANTERIOR CINGULATE 559 PREFRONTAL CORTEX NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS PUTAMEN AMYGDALA HIPPOCAMPUS CAUDATE Fig. 1. Human brain (frontal pole left) regions of potential interest to economists of planning, cognitive control and integration of cross-brain input. Parietal areas govern motor action. The occipital lobe is where visual processing occurs. The temporal lobes are important for memory, recognition and emotion. Neurons from different areas are interconnected, which enables the brain to respond to complex stimuli in an integrated way.When an automated insurance broker calls and says, ‘‘Don’t you want earthquake insura nce? Press 1 for more information’’ the occipital lobe ‘‘pictures’’ your house collapsing; the temporal lobe feels a negative emotion; and the frontal lobe receives the emotional signal and weighs it against the likely cost of insurance. If the frontal lobe ‘‘decides’’ you should find out more, the parietal lobe directs your finger to press 1 on your phone. A crucial fact is that the human brain is basically a mammalian brain with a larger cortex.This means human behavior will generally be a compromise between highly evolved animal emotions and instincts, and more recently evolved human deliberation and foresight; see e. g. Loewenstein (1996). It also means we can learn a lot about humans from studying primates (who share more than 98% of our genes) and other animals. Three features of human brain function are notable: automaticity, modularity and sense-making. According to a prominent neuroscientist, Gazzaniga (1988) wrote: # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. 560 C. F. Camerer, G. Loewenstein and D. Prelec ‘Human brain architecture is organized in terms of functional modules capable of working both cooperatively and independently. These modules can carry out their functions in parallel and outside of conscious experience. The modules can effect internal and external behaviors, and do this at regular intervals. Monitoring all this is a left-brain-based system called the interpreter. The interpreter considers all the outputs of the functional modules as soon as they are made and immediately constructs a hypothesis as to why particular actions occurred. In fact the interpreter need not be privy to why a particular module responded.Nonetheless, it will take the behavior at face value and fit the event into the large ongoing mental schema (belief system) that it has already constructed. ’’ Many brain activities are automatic parallel, rapid processes whic h typically occur without awareness. Automaticity implies that ‘‘people’’— i. e. , the deliberative cortex and the language processing which articulates a person’s reasons for their own behavior—may genuinely not know the cause of their own behavior. 1 Automaticity means that overcoming some habits is only possible with cognitive effort, which is scarce.But the power of the brain to automatize also explains why tasks which are so challenging to brain and body resources that they seem impossibly difficult at first—windsurfing, driving a car, paying attention to four screens at once in a trading room—can be done automatically after enough practice. 2 At the same time, when good performance becomes automatic (in the form of ‘‘procedural knowledge’’) it is typically hard to articulate, which means human capital of this sort is difficult to reproduce by teaching others. The different brain modules are often neuroanatomically separated (like organs of the body).Some kinds of modularity are really remarkable: The ‘‘facial fusiform area’’ (FFA) is specialized for facial recognition; ‘‘somatosensory cortex’’ has areas corresponding directly to different parts of the body (body parts with more nerve endings, like the mouth, have more corresponding brain tissue); features of visual images are neurally encoded in different brain areas, reproducing the external visual 1 For example, 40-millisecond flashes of angry or happy faces, followed immediately by a neutral ‘‘mask’’ face, activate the amygdala even though people are completely unaware of whether they saw a happy or angry face; see Whalen, Rauch, Etcoff, McInerney, Lee and Jenike (1998). 2 Lo and Repin (2002) recorded psychophysiological measures (like skin conductance and heart rate) with actual foreign exchange traders during their work. They found that more experienced traders showed lower emotional responses to market events that set the hearts of less experienced traders pounding. Their discovery suggests that responding to market events becomes partially automated, which produces less biological reaction in experienced traders. # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. Neuroeconomics: why economics needs brains 561 rganization of the elements internally (‘‘retinotopic mapping’’); and there are separate language areas, Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas,3 for semantics and for comprehension and grammar. Many neuroscientists think there is a specialized ‘‘mentalizing’’ (or ‘‘theory of mind’’) module, which controls a person’s inferences about what other people believe, or feel, or might do; see e. g. Fletcher, Happe, Frith, Baker, Dolan, Frackowiak and Frith (1995). Such a module presumably supports a whole range of cri tical human functions—decoding emotions, understanding of social rules, emotions, language, strategic concepts (bluffing)—and has obvious importance for economic transactions.Modularity is important for neuroeconomics because it invites tests that map theoretical distinctions onto separate brain areas. For example, if people play games against other people differently than they make decisions (a ‘‘game against nature’’), as is presumed in economic theory, those two tasks should activate some different brain areas. However, the modularity hypothesis should not be taken too far. Most complex behaviors of interest to economics require collaboration among more specialized modules and functions. So the brain is like a large company—branch offices specialize in different functions, but also communicate to one another, and communicate more feverishly when an important decision is being made.Attention in neuroeconomics is therefore focused not just on specific regions, but also on finding ‘‘circuits’’ or collaborative systems of specialized regions which create choice and judgment. The brain’s powerful drive toward sense-making leads us to strive to interpret our own behavior. The human brain is like a monkey brain with a cortical ‘‘press secretary’’ who is glib at concocting explanations for behavior, and privileges deliberative explanations over cruder ones; cf. Nisbett and Wilson (1977) and Wegner and Wheatley (1999). An important feature of this sense-making is that it is highly dependent on expectations; in psychological terms, it is ‘‘top down’’ as opposed to ‘‘bottom-up’’.For example, when people are given incomplete pictures, their brains often automatically fill in the missing elements so that there is never any awareness that anything is missing. In other settings, the brain’s imposition of order can make it detect patterns where there are none; see Gilovich (1991). When subjects listen to music and watch flashing Christmas tree lights at the same time, they mistakenly report that the two are synchronized. Mistaken beliefs in sports streaks, as evidenced by Gilovich, Vallone and Tversky (1985), and seeing spurious patterns in time series like stock-price data (‘‘technical analysis’’) may come from ‘‘too much’’ sense-making.Patients with Wernicke damage can babble sentences of words which make no sense strung together. Broca patients’ sentences make sense but they often ‘‘can’t find just the right word’’. # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. 3 562 C. F. Camerer, G. Loewenstein and D. Prelec Top-down encoding also implies the brain misses images it does not expect to see. A dramatic example is ‘‘change-blindness’’. In an amusing study t itled ‘‘Gorillas in our Midst’’, subjects watch a video of six people passing a basketball and count the passes made by one ‘‘team’’ (indicated by jersey color). Forty seconds into the film clip, a gorilla walks into the center of the game, turns to the camera, thumps its chest, and then walks off.Although the gorilla cavorts onscreen for a full total of nine seconds, about one-half of the subjects remain oblivious to the intrusion, even when pointedly asked whether they had seen ‘‘the gorilla walking across the screen’’; see Simons and Chabris (1999). When the brain does assimilate information, it does so rapidly and efficiently, ‘‘overwriting’’ what was previously believed. This can create a powerful ‘‘hindsight bias’’ in which events seem, after the fact, to have been predictable even when they were not. Hindsight bias is probably important in agency r elations when an agent takes an informed action and a principal ‘‘second-guesses’’ the agent if the action turns out badly. This adds a special source of risk to the agent’s income and may lead to other behaviors like herding, diffusion of responsibility, inefficiencies from ‘‘covering your ass’’, excessive labor turnover, and so on.We emphasize these properties of the brain, which are rapid and often implicit (subconscious), because they depart the most from conscious deliberation that may take place in complex economic decisions like saving for retirement and computing asset values. Our emphasis does not deny the importance of deliberation. The presence of other mechanisms just means that the right models should include many components and how they interact. IV. Topics in Neuroeconomics Preferences Thinking about the brain suggests several shortcomings with the standard economic concept of preference. 1. Feelings of pleasu re and pain originate in homeostatic mechanisms that detect departures from a ‘‘set-point’’ or ideal level, and attempt to restore equilibrium. In some cases, these attempts do not require additional voluntary actions, e. g. when monitors for body temperature trigger sweating to cool you off and shivering to warm you up. In other cases, the homeostatic processes operate by changing momentary preferences, a process called ‘‘alliesthesia’’; see Cabanac (1979). When the core body temperature falls below the 98. 6F set-point, almost anything that raises body temperature (such as placing one’s hand in warm water) feels good, and the opposite is true when body temperature is too high. Similarly, monitors for blood sugar levels, intestinal distention and many other variables trigger hunger. # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. Neuroeconomics: why economics needs brains 563Homeostasis means preferences are â €˜â€˜state-dependent’’ in a special way: the states are internal to the body and both affect preferences and act as information signals which provoke equilibration. Some kinds of homeostatic state-dependence are ‘‘contagious’’ across people—for example, the menstrual cycles of females living together tend to converge over time. Perhaps ‘‘waves’’ of panic and euphoria in markets work in a similar way, correlating responses so that internal states become macroeconomic states (as in the ‘‘animal spirits’’, which, in Keynes’s view, were a cause of business cycles). 2. Inferring preferences from a choice does not tell us everything we need to know. Consider the hypothetical case of two people, Al and Naucia, who both refuse to buy peanuts at a reasonable price; cf. Romer (2000).The refusal to buy reveals a common disutility for peanuts. But Al turned down the peanuts because h e is allergic: consuming peanuts causes a prickly rash, shortens his breath, and could even be fatal. Naucia turned down the peanuts because she ate a huge bag of peanuts at a circus years ago, and subsequently got nauseous from eating too much candy at the same time. Since then, her gustatory system associates peanuts with illness and she refuses them at reasonable prices. While Al and Naucia both revealed an identical disutility, a neurally detailed account tells us more. Al has an inelastic demand for peanuts—you can’t pay him enough to eat them! while Naucia would try a fistful for the right price. Their tastes will also change over time differently: Al’s allergy will not be cured by repeated consumption, while Naucia’s distaste might be easily changed if she tried peanuts once and didn’t get sick. Another example suggests how concepts of preference can be even wider of the mark by neglecting the nature of biological state-dependence: Nobody ch ooses to fall asleep at the wheel while driving. Of course, an imaginative rational-choice economist—or a satirist—could posit a tradeoff between ‘‘sleep utility’’ and ‘‘risk of plowing into a tree utility’’ and infer that a dead sleeper must have had higher u(sleep) than u(plowing into a tree).But this ‘‘explanation’’ is just tautology. It is more useful to think of the ‘‘choice’’ as resulting from the interaction of multiple systems—an automatic biological system which homeostatically shuts down the body when it is tired, and a controlled cognitive system which fights off sleep when closing your eyes can be fatal, and sometimes loses the fight. For economists, it is natural to model these phenomena by assuming that momentary preferences depend on biological states. This raises a deep question of whether the cortex is aware about the nature of the processes a nd allocates cognitive effort (probably cingulate activity) to control them.For example, Loewenstein, O’Donoghue and Rabin (in press) suggest that people neglect mean-reversion in biological states, which explains stylized # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. 564 C. F. Camerer, G. Loewenstein and D. Prelec facts like suicide resulting from temporary depression, and shoppers buying more food when they are hungry. 4 3. A third problem with preferences is that there are different types of utilities which do not always coincide. Kahneman (1994) distinguishes four types: remembered utility, anticipated utility, choice utility and experienced utility. Remembered utility is what people recall liking; anticipated utility is what they expect to like; choice utility is what they reveal by choosing (classical revealed preference); and experienced utility is what they actually like when they consume.It is likely that the four types of utility are produced, to some extent, in separate brain regions. For example, Berridge and Robinson (1998) have found distinct brain regions for ‘‘wanting’’ and ‘‘liking’’, which correspond roughly to choice utility and experienced utility. The fact that these areas are dissociated allows a wedge between those two kinds of utility. Similarly, a wedge between remembered and experienced utility can be created by features of human memory which are adaptive for general purposes (but maladaptive for remembering precisely how something felt), such as repression of memories for severe pain in childbirth and other traumatic ordeals (e. g. , outdoor adventures led by author GL).If the different types of utility are produced by different regions, they will not always match up. Examples are easy to find. Infants reveal a choice utility by putting dirt in their mouths, but they don’t rationally anticipate liking it. Addicts often report drug craving (wanting) which leads to consumption (choosing) that they say is not particularly pleasurable (experiencing). Compulsive shoppers buy goods (revealing choice utility) which they never use (no experienced utility). When decisions are rare, like getting pregnant, deciding whether to go to college, signing up for pension contributions, buying a house, or declaring war, there is no reason to think the four types of utility will necessarily match up.This possibility is important because it means that the standard analysis of welfare, which assumes that choices anticipate experiences, is incomplete. In repeated situations with clear feedback, human learning may bring the four types of utilities together gradually. The rational choice model of consistent and coherent preferences can then be characterized as a limiting case of a neural model with multiple utility types, under certain learning conditions. 4. A fourth problem with preference is that people are assumed to value money for what it can purchase —that is, the utility of income is indirect, and Biological state-dependence also affects tipping.Most economic models suggest that the key variable affecting tipping behavior is how often a person returns to a restaurant. While this variable does influence tips slightly, a much stronger variable is how many alcoholic drinks the tipper had; see Conlin, Lynn and O’Donoghue (2003). # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. 4 Neuroeconomics: why economics needs brains 565 should be derived from direct utilities for goods that will be purchased with money. But roughly speaking, it appears that similar brain circuitry— dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain—is active for a wide variety of rewarding experiences—drugs, food, attractive faces, humor—and money rewards. This means money may be directly rewarding, and its loss painful.This might explain why workaholics and the very wealthy keep working long hours after they ‘â₠¬Ëœshould be’’ retired or cutting back (i. e. , when the marginal utility of goods purchased with their marginal income is very low). Similarly, the immediate ‘‘pain of paying’’ can make wealthy individuals reluctant to spend when they should, and predicts unconventional effects of pricing—e. g. a preference for fixed payment plans rather than marginal-use pricing; see Prelec and Loewenstein (1998). 5. A common principle in economic modeling is that the utility of income depends only on the value of the goods and services it can buy, and is independent of the source of income.But Loewenstein and Issacharoff (1994) found that selling prices for earned goods were larger when the allocated good was earned than when it was unearned. Zink, Pagnoni, Martin-Skurski, Chappelow and Berns (2004) also found that when subjects earned money (by responding correctly to a stimulus), rather than just receiving equivalent rewards with no effort, there w as greater activity in a midbrain reward region called the striatum. Earned money is literally more rewarding, in the brain, than unearned money. The fact that brain utility depends on the source of income is potentially important for welfare and tax policies. 6. Addiction is an important topic for economics because it seems to resist rational explanation.Becker and Murphy (1988) suggest that addiction and other changes in taste can be modeled by allowing current utility to depend on a stock of previous consumption. They add the assumption that consumers understand the habit formation, which implies that behavior responds to expected future prices. 5 While variants of this model are a useful workhorse, other approaches are possible. It is relevant to rational models of addiction that every substance to which humans may become biologically addicted is also potentially addictive for rats. Addictive substances appear therefore to be ‘‘hijacking’’ primitive rew ard circuitry in the ‘‘old’’ part of the human brain.Although this fact does not disprove the rational model (since 5 Evidence in favor of the rational-addiction view is that measured price elasticities for addictive goods like cigarettes are similar to those of other goods (roughly A0. 5 and A2), and there is some evidence that current consumption does respond to expected future prices; cf. Gruber and Koszegi (2001) and Hung (2001). However, data limitations make it difficult to rule out alternative explanations (e. g. , smokers may be substituting into higher-nicotine cigarettes when prices go up). # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. 566 C. F. Camerer, G. Loewenstein and D. Prelec ecently-evolved cortex may override rat-brain circuitry), it does show that rational intertemporal planning is not necessary to create the addictive phenomena of tolerance, craving and withdrawal. It also highlights the need for economic models of the pr imitive reward circuitry, which would apply equally to man and rat. Another awkward fact for rational-addiction models is that most addicts quit and relapse regularly. And while rational addicts should buy drugs in large quantities at discounted prices, and self-ration them out of inventory, addicts usually buy in small packages; cf. Wertenbroch (1998). These facts suggest a struggle between a visceral desire or drugs and cortical awareness that drug use is a losing proposition in the long run; relapse occurs when the visceral desire wins the struggle. It is also remarkable that repeated drug use conditions the user to expect drug administration after certain cues appear (e. g. , shooting up in a certain neighborhood or only smoking in the car). Laibson (2001) created a pioneering formal model of cue-dependent use, showing that there are multiple equilibria in which cues either trigger use or are ignored. The more elaborate model of Bernheim and Rangel (in press), is a paradigmatic example of how economic theory can be deeply rooted in neuroscientific details. They assume that when a person is in a hot state they use drugs; in a cold state, whether they use is a rational choice.A variable S, from 0 to N, summarizes the person’s history of drug use. When he uses, S goes up; when he abstains S goes down. They characterize destructively addictive drugs and prove that the value function is declining in the drug-use history variable S. By assuming the cold state reflects the person’s true welfare, they can also do welfare analysis and compare the efficiency effects of policies like laissezfaire, drug bans, sin taxes and regulated dispensation. Decision-making under Risk and Uncertainty Perhaps the most rapid progress in neuroeconomics will be made in the study of risky decision-making. We focus on three topics: risk judgments, risky choice and probability.Risk and ambiguity: In most economic analyses risk is equated with variation of outcomes. But for most people, risk has more dimensions (particularly emotional ones). Studies have long shown that potential outcomes which are catastrophic and difficult to control are perceived as more risky (controlling for statistical likelihood); see Peters and Slovic (2000). Business executives say risk is the chance of loss, especially a large loss, often approximated by semivariance (the variance of the loss portion of an outcome distribution); see Luce and Weber (1986), MacCrimmon and Wehrung (1986) and recent interest in ‘‘value-at-risk’’ measures in finance. # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004.Neuroeconomics: why economics needs brains 567 Fig. 2. Opening the brain at the Sylvian fissure (between temporal and frontal lobes) shows the insula cortex (frontal pole is on the right). Illustration courtesy of Ralph Adolphs These properties are exemplified by the fear of flying (which is statistically much safer than driving) phobias and public outcry to dangers which are horrifying, but rare (like kidnappings of children and terrorist bombings). Since economic transactions are inherently interpersonal, emotions which are activated by social risks, like shame and fear of public speaking could also influence economic activity in interesting ways.A lot is known about the neural processes underlying affective responses to risks; see Loewenstein, Hsee, Welch and Weber (2001). Much aversion to risks is driven by immediate fear responses, which are largely traceable to a small area of the brain called the amygdala; cf. LeDoux (1996). The amygdala is an ‘‘internal ‘hypochondriac’ ’’ which provides ‘‘quick and dirty’’ emotional signals in response to potential fears. But the amygdala also receives cortical inputs which can moderate or override its responses. 6 An interesting experiment illustrating cortical override begins with fearconditioning—repeatedly admi nistering a tone cue followed by a painful electric shock.Once the tone becomes associated in the animal’s mind with the shock, the animal shows signs of fear after the tone is played, but before 6 For example, people exhibit fear reactions to films of torture, but are less afraid when they are told the people portrayed are actors and asked to judge some unemotional properties of the films. # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. 568 C. F. Camerer, G. Loewenstein and D. Prelec ` the shock arrives (the tone is called a ‘‘conditioned stimulus’’ a la Pavlov’s famous salivating dogs). When the tone is played repeatedly but not followed by a shock, the animal’s fear response is gradually ‘‘extinguished’’. At this point, a Bayesian might conclude that the animal has simply ‘‘unlearned’’ the connection between the tone and the shock (the posterior probability P(shockjtone ) has fallen).But the neural reality is more nuanced than that. If the shock is then readministered following the tone, after a long period of extinction, the animal immediately relearns the tone–shock relation and feels fear very rapidly. 7 Furthermore, if the connections between the cortex and the amygdala are severed, the animal’s original fear response to the tone immediately reappears. This means the fear response to the tone has not disappeared in the amygdala, it is simply being suppressed by the cortex. Another dimension of risky choice is ‘‘ambiguity’’—missing information about probabilities people would like to know but don’t (e. g. , the Ellsberg paradox).Using fMRI, Hsu and Camerer (2004) found that the insula cortex was differentially activated when people chose certain money amounts rather than ambiguous gambles. The insula (shown in Figure 2) is a region that processes information from the nervous system about bodi ly states—such as physical pain, hunger, the pain of social exclusion, disgusting odors and choking. This tentative evidence suggests a neural basis for pessimism or ‘‘fear of the unknown’’ influencing choices. Risky choice: Like risk judgments, choices among risky gambles involve an interplay of cognitive and affective processes. A well-known study reported in Bechara, Damasio, Tranel and Damasio (1997) illustrates such collaboration.Patients suffering prefrontal damage (which, as discussed above, produces a disconnect between cognitive and affective systems) and normal subjects chose cards from one of four decks. Two decks had more cards with extreme wins and losses (and negative expected value); two decks had less extreme outcomes but positive expected value (EV), and subjects had to learn these deck compositions by trial-and-error. They compared behavior of normal subjects with patients who had damage to prefrontal cortex (PFC; which limits the a bility to receive emotional ‘‘somatic markers’’ and creates indecision). Both groups exhibited similar skin conductance reactions (an indication of fear) immediately after large-loss cards were encountered. 7 This is hard to reconcile with a standard Bayesian analysis because the ame ‘‘likelihood evidence’’ (i. e. , frequency of shock following a tone) which takes many trials to condition fear in the first part of the experiment raises the posterior rapidly in just one or two trials in the later part of the experiment. If the animal had a low prior belief that tones might be followed by shocks, this could explain slow updating in the first part. But since the animal’s revealed posterior belief after the extinction is also low, there is no simple way to explain why updating is so rapid after the fear is reinstalled. # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. Neuroeconomics: why economics needs brains 569Howe ver, normal subjects learned to avoid those risky ‘‘bad decks’’ but the prefrontal-damage patients rapidly returned to the bad decks shortly after suffering a loss. In fact, even among normal subjects, those who were lowest in emotional reactivity acted more like the prefrontal patients; see Peters and Slovic (2000). Homeostasis in the body implies that people will adapt to changes and, consequently, are more sensitive to changes than to absolute levels. Kahneman and Tversky (1979) suggest the same principle applies to gains and losses of money from a point of reference and, furthermore, that the pain of loss is stronger than the pleasure of equal-sized gains.Imaging studies show that gains and losses are fundamentally different because losses produce more overall activation and slower response times, and there are differences in which areas are active during gain and loss; see Camerer, Johnson, Rymon and Sen (1993) and Smith and Dickhaut (2002). Dickhaut, McCabe, Nagode, Rustichini and Pardo (2003) found more activity in the orbitofrontal cortex when thinking about gains compared to losses, and more activity in inferior parietal and cerebellar areas when thinking about losses. O’Doherty, Kringelbach, Rolls, Jornak and Andrews (2001) found that losses differentially activated lateral OFC and gains activated medial OFC. Knutson, Westdorp, Kaiser and Hommer (2000) found strong activation in mesial PFC on both gain and loss trials, and additional activation in anterior cingulate and thalamus during loss trials.Single-neuron measurement by Schultz and colleagues, as reported in Schultz and Dickinson (2000), and Glimcher (2002) in monkeys has isolated specific neurons which correspond remarkably closely to familiar economic ideas of utility and belief. Schulz isolates dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental ‘‘midbrain’’ and Glimcher studies the lateral inferior parietal (LIP) area. The midbrain neuron s fire at rates which are monotonic in reward amount and probability (i. e. , they ‘‘encode’’ reward and probability). The LIP neurons seem to encode expected value in games with mixed-strategy equilibria that monkeys play against computerized opponents. An interesting fact for neuroeconomics is that all the violations of standard utility theories exhibited in human choice experiments over money have been replicated with animals.For example, in ‘‘Allais paradox’’ choices people appear to overweight low probabilities, give a quantum jump in weight to certain outcomes, and do not distinguish sharply enough between intermediate probabilities; see e. g. Prelec (1998). Rats show this pattern too, and also show other expected utility violations; see e. g. Battalio, Kagel and Green (1995). People also exhibit ‘‘context-dependence’’: whether A is chosen more often than B can depend on the presence of an irrelevant third choice C (which is dominated and never chosen). Context-dependence means people compare choices within a set rather than assigning separate numerical utilities. Honeybees exhibit the same pattern; see Shafir, Waite and Smith (2002). The striking # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. 570 C. F. Camerer, G. Loewenstein and D. Prelec arallelism of choices across species suggests that the human neural circuitry for these decisions is ‘‘old’’, and perhaps specially adapted to the challenges all species face—foraging, reproduction and survival—but not necessarily consistent with rationality axioms. Gambling: Economics has never provided a satisfactory theory of why people both insure and gamble. Including emotions and other neuroscientific constructs might help. Like drug addiction, the study of pathological gambling is a useful test case where simple theories of rationality take us only so far. About 1% of the people wh o gamble are ‘‘pathological’’—they report losing control, ‘‘chasing losses’’, and harming their personal and work relationships; cf. National Research Council (1999).Pathological gamblers are overwhelmingly male. They drink, smoke and use drugs much more frequently than average. Many have a favorite game or sport they gamble on. Gambling incidence is correlated among twins, and genetic evidence shows that pathologicals are more likely to have a certain gene allele (D2Al), which means that larger thrills are needed to get modest jolts of pleasure; see Comings (1998). One study shows that treatment with naltrexone, a drug that blocks the operation of opiate receptors in the brain, reduces the urge to gamble; see e. g. Moreyra, Aibanez, Saiz-Ruiz, Nissenson and Blanco (2000). 8 Game Theory and Social PreferencesIn strategic interactions (games), knowing how another person thinks is critical to predicting that person’s be havior. Many neuroscientists believe there is a specialized ‘‘mind-reading’’ (or ‘‘theory of mind’’) area which controls reasoning about what others believe and might do. Social preferences: McCabe, Houser, Ryan, Smith and Trouard (2001) used fMRI to measure brain activity when subjects played games involving trust, cooperation and punishment. They found that players who cooperated more often with others showed increased activation in Broadmann area 10 (thought to be one part of the mind-reading circuitry) and in the thalamus (part of the emotional ‘‘limbic’’ system).Their finding is nicely corroborated by Hill and Sally (2002), who compared normal and autistic subjects playing ultimatum games, in which a proposer offers a take-it-or-leave-it division of a sum of money to a responder. Autists often have trouble figuring out what other people think and believe, and are thought to have deficits in area 10. A bout a quarter of their autistic adults offered nothing in the ultimatum game, which is consistent with an inability to imagine why others would regard an offer of zero as unfair and reject it. The same drug has been used to successfully treat ‘‘compulsive shopping’’; see McElroy, Satlin, Pope, Keck and Hudson (1991). # The editors of theScandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. 8 Neuroeconomics: why economics needs brains 571 One of the most telling neuroscientific findings comes from Sanfey, Rilling, Aaronson, Nystrom, Leigh and Cohen’s (2003) fMRI study of ultimatum bargaining. By imaging the brains of subjects responding to offers, they found that very unfair offers ($1 or $2 out of $10) differentially activated prefrontal cortex (PFC), anterior cingulate (ACC) and insula cortex. The insula cortex is known to be activated during the experience of negative emotions like pain and disgust. ACC is an ‘‘executive function’’ are a which often receives inputs from many areas and resolves conflicts among them. After an unfair offer, the brain (ACC) struggles to resolve the conflict between wanting money (PFC) and disliking the ‘‘disgust’’ of being treated unfairly (insula). Whether players reject unfair offers or not can be predicted rather reliably (a correlation of 0. 45) by the level of their insula activity. It is natural to speculate that the insula is a neural locus of the distaste for inequality or unfair treatment posited by recent models of social utility, which have been successfully used to explain robust ultimatum rejections, public goods contributions, and trust and gift-exchange results in experiments; see Fehr and Gachter (2000) and Camerer (2003, Ch. 2). 10 ?In a similar vein, de Quervain, Fischbacher, Treyer, Schellhammer, Schynyder, Buck and Fehr (2004) used PET imaging to explore the nature of costly third-party punishment by players A, after B played a trust game with player C and C decided how much to repay. When C repaid too little, the players A often punished C at a cost to themselves. They found that when players A inflicted an economic punishment, a reward region in the striatum (the nucleus accumbens) was activated—‘‘revenge tastes sweet’’. When punishment was costly, regions in prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex were differentially active, which indicates that players are responding to the cost of punishment. Zak, Matzner and Kurzban 2003) explored the role of hormones in trust games. In a canonical trust game, one player can invest up to $10 which is tripled. A second ‘‘trustee’’ player can keep or repay as much of the tripled investment as they want. Zak et al. measured eight hormones at different points in the trust game. They find an increase in oxytocin—a hormone 9 The ACC also contains ‘‘spindle cells’’—large neurons shape d like spindles, which are almost unique to human brains; see Allman, Hakeem, Erwin, Nimchinsky and Hof (2001). These cells are probably important for the activities which distinguish humans from our primate cousins, such as language, cognitive control and complex decision-making. 0 The fact that the insula is activated when unfair/offers are rejected shows how neuroeconomics can deliver fresh predictions: it predicts that low offers are less likely to be rejected by patients with insula damage, and more likely to be rejected if the insula is stimulated indirectly (e. g. , by exposure to disgusting odors). We don’t know if these predictions are true, but no current model would have made them. # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. 572 C. F. Camerer, G. Loewenstein and D. Prelec which rises during social bonding (such as breast-feeding)—in the trustee if the first player ‘‘trusts’’ her by investing a lot.Interesting eviden ce of social preferences comes from studies with monkeys. Brosnan and de Waal (2003) find that monkeys will reject small rewards (cucumbers) when they see other animals getting better rewards (grapes, which they like more). Hauser, Chen, Chen and Chuang (2003) also find that tamarins act altruistically toward other tamarins who have benefited them in the past. These studies imply that we may share many properties of social preference with monkey cousins. Iterated thinking: Another area of game theory where neuroscience should prove useful is iterated strategic thinking. A central concept in game theory is that players think about what others will do, and about what thers think they will do, and this reasoning (or some other process, like learning, evolution or imitation) results in a mutually consistent equilibrium in which each player guesses correctly what others will do (and chooses their own best response given those beliefs). From a neural view, iterated thinking consumes scarc e working memory and also requires one player to put herself in another player’s ‘‘mind’’. There may be no generic human capacity to do this beyond a couple of steps. Studies of experimental choices, and payoff information subjects look up on a computer screen, suggest 1–2 steps of reasoning are typical in most populations; cf. e. g.Costa-Gomes, Crawford and Broseta (2001), Johnson, Camerer, Sen and Tymon (2002), and see Camerer, Ho and Chong (2004). 11 Bhatt and Camerer (2004) find differential activation in the insula in players who are poor strategic thinkers, which they interpret as reflecting self-focus that harms strategizing. V. Conclusions Economics parted company from psychology in the early twentieth century after economists became skeptical that basic psychological forces could be measured without inferring them from behavior (and then, circularly, using those inferred forces to predict behavior). Neuroscience makes this measurement possible for the first time. It gives a new way to open the ‘‘black box’’ which is the building block of economic systems—the human mind.More ambitiously, students are often bewildered that the models of human nature offered in different social sciences are so different, and often contradictory. Economists emphasize rationality; psychologists 11 It is important to note, however, that principles like backward induction and computation of equilibrium can be easily taught in these experiments. That means these principles are not computationally difficult, per se, they are simply unnatural. In terms of neural economizing, this means these principles should be treated like efficient tools which the brain is not readilyequipped with, but which have low ‘‘marginal costs’’ once they are acquired. # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. Neuroeconomics: why economics needs brains 73 emphasize cognitive limits and sensitivity of choices to contexts; anthropologists emphasize acculturation; and sociologists emphasize norms and social constraint. An identical question on a final exam in each of the fields about trust, for example, would have different ‘‘correct’’ answers in each of the fields. It is possible that a biological basis for behavior in neuroscience, perhaps combined with all-purpose tools like learning models or game theory, could provide some unification across the social sciences; cf. Gintis (2003). Most economists we talk to are curious about neuroscience but skeptical of whether we need it to do economics.The tradition of ignoring the inside of the ‘‘black box’’ is so deeply ingrained that learning about the brain seems like a luxury we can live without. But it is inevitable that neuroscience will have some impact on economics, eventually. If nothing else, brain fMRI imaging will alter what psychologists believe, leading to a ripple effect which will eventually inform economic theories that are increasingly responsive to psychological evidence. Furthermore, since some neuroscientists are already thinking about economics, a field called neuroeconomics will arise whether we like it or not. So it makes sense to initiate a dialogue with the neuroscientists right away. Economics could continue to chug along, paying no attention to cognitive neuroscience.But, to ignore a major new stream of relevant data is always a dangerous strategy scientifically. It is not as if economic theory has given us the final word on, e. g. , advertising effectiveness, dysfunctional consumption (alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, crime), and business cycle and stock market fluctuations. It is hard to believe that a growing familiarity with brain functioning will not lead to better theories for these and other economic domains, perhaps surprisingly soon. In what way might neuroscience contribute to economics? First, in the applied domai n, neuroscience measurements have a comparative advantage when other sources of data are unreliable or biased, as is often the case with surveys and self-reports.Since neuroscientists are ‘‘asking the brain, not the person’’, it is possible that direct measurements will generate more reliable indices of some variables which are important to economics (e. g. , consumer confidence, and perhaps even welfare). Second, basic neuroeconomics research will ideally be able to link hypotheses about specific brain mechanisms (location, and activation) with unobservable intermediate variables (utilities, beliefs, planning ahead), and with observable behavior (such as choices). One class of fruitful tasks is those where some theories assume choice A and choice B are made by a common mechanism, but a closer neural look might suggest otherwise.For example, a standard assumption in utility theory is that marginal rates of substitution exist across very different bundles of goods (and, as a corollary, that all goods can be priced in money terms). But some tradeoffs are simply # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. 574 C. F. Camerer, G. Loewenstein and D. Prelec too difficult or morally repulsive (e. g. , selling a body part). Elicited preferences often vary substantially with descriptions and procedures; e. g. Ariely, Loewenstein and Prelec (2003). Neuroscience might tell us precisely what a ‘‘difficult’’ choice or a ‘‘sacred preference’’ is, and why descriptions and procedures matter. 12 A third payoff from neuroscience is to suggest that economic choices which are considered different in theory are using similar brain circuitry.For example, studies cited above found that insula cortex is active when players in ultimatum games receive low offers, when people choose ambiguous gambles or money, when people see faces of others who have cooperated with them, and in players who are poor strategic thinkers. This suggests a possible link between these types of games and choices which would never have been suggested by current theory. A fourth potential payoff from neuroscience is to add precision to functions and parameters in standard economic models. For instance, which substances are cross-addictive is an empirical question which can guide theorizing about dynamic substitution and complementarity. A ‘‘priming dose’’ of cocaine enhances craving for heroin, for example; cf. Gardner and Lowinson (1991).Work on brain structure could add details to theories of human capital and labor market discrimination. 13 The point is that knowing which neural mechanisms are involved tell us something about the nature of the behavior. For example, if the oxytocin hormone is released when you are trusted, and being trusted sparks reciprocation, then raising oxytocin exogeneously could increase trustworthy behavior (if the brain doesn’t adjust fo r the exogeneity and ‘‘undo’’ its effect). In another example, Lerner, Small and Loewenstein (in press) show that changing moods exogeneously changes buying and selling prices for goods. The basic point is that understanding the effects of biological and emotional processes like hormone 2 Grether, Plott, Rowe, Sereno and Allman (2004) study a related problem—what happens in second-price Vickrey auctions when people learn to bid their valuations (a dominant strategy). They find that the anterior cingulate is more active before people learn to bid their values, which is a neural way of saying that bidding valuations is not transparent. 13 It has been known for some time that brains rapidly and unconsciously (‘‘implicitly’’) associate same-race names with good words (‘‘Chip-sunshine’’ for a white person) and opposite-race names with bad words (‘‘Malik-evil’’); see e. g. McConn ell and Leibold (2001). This fact provides a neural source discrimination which is neither a taste nor a judgment of skill based on race (as economic models usually assume).Opposite-race faces also activate the amygdala, an area which processes fear; cf. Phelps, O’Connor, Cunningham, Funayama, Gatenby, Gore and Banaji (2000). Importantly, implicit racial associations can be disabled by first showing people pictures of faces of familiar other-race members (e. g. , showing Caucasians a picture of actor Denzel Washington). This shows that the implicit racial association is not a ‘‘taste’’ in the conventional economic sense (e. g. it may not respond to prices). It is a cognitive impulse which interacts with other aspects of cognition. # The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2004. Neuroeconomics: why economics needs brains 575 elease and moods will lead to new types of predictions about how variations in these processes affect economic beha vior. In the empirical contracts literature there is, surprisingly, no adverse selection and moral hazard in the market for automobile insurance; cf. Chiappori, Abbring, Heckman and Pinquet (2001). But there is plenty of moral hazard in healthcare use and worker behavior. A neural explanation is that driving performance is both optimistic (everyone thinks they are an above-average driver, so poor drivers do not purchase fuller coverage) and automatic (and is therefore unaffected by whether drivers are insured) but healthcare purchases and labor effort are deliberative.This suggests that ‘‘degree of automaticity’’ is a variable that can be usefully included in contracting models. Will it ever be possible to create formal models of how these brain features interact? The answer is definitely ‘‘Yes’’, because models already exist; cf. e. g. Benhabib and Bisin (2004), Loewenstein and O’Donoghue (2004) and Bernheim and Rangel (in press). A key step is to think of behavior as resulting from the interaction of a small number of neural systems—such as automatic and controlled processes, or ‘‘hot’’ affect and ‘‘cold’’ cognition, or a module that chooses and a modu