Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T19:01:29.427Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Developmental and cultural factors in economic beliefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2018

Helena Miton  and
Dan Sperber
Helena Miton
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest 1051, Hungary. [email protected]@gmail.comwww.dan.sperber.fr
Dan Sperber
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest 1051, Hungary. [email protected]@gmail.comwww.dan.sperber.fr
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Boyer & Petersen (B&P) assume that the intuitive systems underlying folk-economic beliefs (FEBs), and, in particular, emporiophobia, evolved in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA), before markets. This makes the historical development of markets puzzling. We suggest that what evolved in the EEA are templates that help children develop intuitive systems partly adjusted to their cultural environment. This helps resolve the puzzle.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e182
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Greif, A. (2004) Impersonal exchange without impartial law: The community responsibility system. Chicago Journal of International Law 5(1):109–38.Google Scholar
Mercier, H. & Sperber, D. (2017) The enigma of reason. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rubin, P. H. (2014) Emporiophobia (fear of markets): Cooperation or competition? Southern Economic Journal 80(4):875–89. doi: 10.4284/0038-4038-2013.287.Google Scholar
Sperber, D. & Hirschfeld, L. (2007) Culture and modularity. In: The innate mind: Culture and cognition, ed. Carruthers, P., Laurence, S. & Stich, S., pp. 149–64. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar