Economics and Emotions

Abstract

The authors describe the attempts, both conceptual and methodical, to account for and to analyse emotional factors of decision-making - the attempts which took place at various stages of development of the economic theory. They also examine potential factors of drawing economists’ interest to the problem. The authors describe main arguments of those economist researchers, who take into account the emotional component of economic behaviour, as well as their actual attempts to include emotions into economic analysis. The focus is on the game experiment that the economists conducted in order to examine the role of emotions. The authors discuss various tendencies in game theory and evolutionary economics and the convergence of economic and social methods as the factor that determines economists’ interest in the study of emotions.