Neuroeconomics: Individual differences in behavioral decision making

Abstract

Neuroeconomics is a new area of research in the behavioral sciences which seeks to elucidate the biological underpinnings of economic and social decision making. One of the first major accomplishments of this highly interdisciplinary field is the reevaluation of classical theories of economic decision making by showing that the inclusion of biological and psychological variables adds much explanatory power to these models. Most recently, scholars in the field have also started to focus on individual differences and stable behavioral variability to improve these models even more. In this symposium, five papers will be presented that combine a wide range of different neuroscientific techniques (molecular genetics, structural magnetic resonance imaging and functional imaging of the behaving and resting brain) with experimental and survey-based behavioral methods to study individual differences in economic (loss aversion, risk aversion, self-control) and social decision making (altruism, pro-social behavior).