The Neuroscience Behind Bad Decisions

Quanta senior writer Emily Singer profiles NYU neuroscientist Paul Glimcher and the emerging field of neuroeconomics. Glimcher's experiments show that when offered a Snickers among 20 candy bars, people often pick something other than their favourite — and that "divisive normalisation," a known visual-system trick the brain uses to save energy, also governs decision-making. The brain consumes 20% of the body's energy with only 2-3% of its mass, so it compresses choices into ranges, producing the irrationalities economists have catalogued for decades.