Money This Is Your Brain On Money Matthew Herper, 12:00 PM ET
Six years ago, Stanford brain scientist Brian Knutson
accidentally set neuroscience and economics on a collision
course. Knutson wanted to use MRI scanners--the same devices
used in medical diagnosis--to literally peer inside people's
heads as they experienced intense emotions. He tried showing
volunteers pictures of nude and decapitated bodies. But those
reactions paled compared with what happened when he offered
people cash. In 2000, Knutson published the first paper using
magnetic resonance imaging to photograph what goes on in the
brain as people deal with money. Within a year, his findings and
others had given birth to a new field called neuroeconomics.
Neuroeconomics seeks to replace the abstract, hyper-rational
creatures that populate tradition economics with real--sometimes
irrational--people. Neuroeconomists use devices, like MRIs, to
observe the behavior of real people buying and selling things.
"You can actually get inside the black box,