Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Adam M. Grant — Why Learning Business Economics Shrinks Our Souls – The perils of teaching homo-economicus

But maybe studying economics doesn’t change people. It could be self-selection: Students who already believe in self-interest are drawn to economics.
There is evidence for selection. In a study of over 28,000 students in Switzerland, 62% of economics students gave money at least once to help students in need, compared with 69% of non-economics students. These differences were already present before the students took a single economics course: students with lower giving rates were drawn to economics. As freshmen, before their first lectures, 71% of the students who chose economics contributed, compared with 75% of non-economists.
But this doesn’t rule out the possibility that studying economics pushes people further toward the selfish extreme. Along with directly learning about self-interest in the classroom, because selfish people are attracted to economics, students end up surrounded by people who believe in and act on the principle of self-interest.
Extensive research shows that when people gather in groups, they develop even more extreme beliefs than where they started. Social psychologists call this group polarization. By spending time with like-minded people, economics students may become convinced that selfishness is widespread and rational―or at least that giving is rare and foolish.
To figure out whether economics education can shift people in the selfish direction, we need to track beliefs and behaviors over time—or randomly assign them to economics exposure. Here’s what the evidence shows:
Research seems to indicate that those who study economics have a maturity problem.
As a business school professor, these effects worry me. Economics is taught widely in business schools, providing a foundation for courses in management, finance, and accounting. Business is now the most popular undergraduate major in the US, and it’s growing in market share.…
Calling economists “rational fools,” Sen observed: “The purely economic man is indeed close to being a social moron.”
Evonomics
Why Learning Business Economics Shrinks Our Souls – The perils of teaching homo-economicus
Adam M. Grant| Professor of Management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School

2 comments:

Matt Franko said...

Survival of the fittest...

Ignacio said...

Producing things is not fashionable any more. The cool thing nowadays is to be a "manager", who knows nothing about anything and thinks knows everything about everything.

The parasitical behaviour of this class of individuals, little clones of Ayn Rand, is what is driving the primary destruction of our economies and societies. All backed by pseudo-scientific generalist 'management techniques' with little more back backup than economists febrile thought constructs.

Always "managing" others, other's moneys, and other's production. Never contributing jackshit to the ecosystem they inhabit. This is the definition of a parasite. The overtaking in most industries by this class of know-nothings is destroying the productive capacity of society. Places that used to be occupied by engineers, doctors, scientists, even freaking lawyers, are now occupies by the mythical "manager" with the social intelligence of an amoeba (or less!).

We have gone past the point where whole new industries are invented and based around managerialism, with negative value added to society like "private equity", industries based around dubious IP laws, and other forms of finance/"services" where opaque information and decision power asymmetry rules. Rent seeking, exploitation and value destruction is the new normal. Goldman Sachs is asking "is capitalism working": no, your kind of capitalism cannot work, managerialism is the product of the decadency of productivism.

P.S: Sorry for those few good managers out there, <i know you add value to society, but there is just too much people is this camp that should be wiped and 'suffer' the product of their own misbehaviour to gather valuable knowledge about the things they theoretically manage.

/rant