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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/64167124-263d-11db-afa1-0000779e2340.html > A closed mind about an open world By James Boyle > > Over the past 15 years, a group of scholars has finally persuaded > economists to believe something non-economists find obvious: > “behavioural economics” shows that people do not act as economic > theory predicts. > > However, this is not a vindication of folk wisdom over the > pointy-heads. The deviations from “rational behaviour” were not the > wonderful cornucopia of humanist motivations you might imagine. There > were patterns. We were risk-averse when it came to losses – likely to > overestimate chances of loss and underestimate chances of gain, for > example. We rely on heuristics to frame problems but cling to them > even when they are contradicted by the facts. Some of these patterns > are endearing; the supposedly “irrational” concerns for equality that > persist in all but Republicans and the economically trained, for > example. But most were simply the mapping of cognitive bias. We can > take advantage of those biases, as those who sell us expensive and > irrational warranties on consumer goods do. Or we can correct for > them, like a pilot who is trained to rely on his instruments rather > than his faulty perceptions when flying in heavy cloud. > > Studying intellectual property and the internet has convinced me that > we have another cognitive bias. Call it the openness aversion. We are > likely to undervalue the importance, viability and productive power > of open systems, open networks and non-proprietary production. > > [...] --ravi -- Support something better than yourself: ;-) PeTA: http://www.peta.org/ GreenPeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/ If you have nothing better to do: http://platosbeard.org/
