Making money out of psychology – Can we explain economic behaviour?
In the C.S. Myers Lecture at the Society’s Annual Conference in 2000, Stephen E.G. Lea asked ‘If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?'
18 August 2000
The first part of my title is of course a con: a shameless attempt to get you to read the rest of this article. But we are an ethical profession with a code of conduct, so shame showed through by the time I got to the subtitle, and I hope no one will read any further under false pretences. Do you sincerely want to be rich? I am afraid I am not going to tell you how. What I am going to do is to reflect on why it is that I can't tell you how, and in general why psychology cannot tell us how. I will also examine what psychology can tell us about economic behaviour — and vice versa.
…To read on, download the issue PDF via the Archive; or you can listen to an interview with Stephen.