Overview

Which is smarter,your head or your gut? It's a familiar refrain: you're getting too emotional. Try and think rationally. But is it always good advice?In this surprising book, Eyal Winter asks a simple question: why do we have emotions? If they lead to such bad decisions, why hasn't evolution long since made emotions irrelevant? The answer is that, even though they may not behave in a purely logical manner, our emotions frequently lead us to better, safer, more optimal outcomes.In fact, as Winter discovers, there is often logic in emotion, and emotion in logic. For instance, many mutually beneficial commitments,such as marriage, or being a member of a team,are only possible when underscored by emotion rather than deliberate thought. The difference between pleasurable music and bad noise is mathematically precise yet it is also something we feel at an instinctive level. And even though people are usually overconfident,how can we all be above average?,we often benefit from our arrogance. Feeling Smart brings together game theory, evolution, and behavioural science to produce a surprising and very persuasive defence of how we think, even when we don't.

Full Product Details

Author:   Eyal Winter
Publisher:   PublicAffairs,U.S.
Imprint:   PublicAffairs,U.S.
Dimensions:   Width: 16.50cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 23.60cm
Weight:   0.486kg
ISBN:  

9781610394901

ISBN 10:   1610394909
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   30 December 2014
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS Preface ix Introduction: What Is Rationality? xv PART I: ON ANGER AND COMMITMENT CHAPTER 1: What Is the Point of Getting Annoyed? Emotions as a Mechanism for Creating Commitments 3 CHAPTER 2: Why We Love Those Who Are Cruel to Us: Stockholm Syndrome and the Story of the Nazi Schoolteacher 12 CHAPTER 3: Emotional Impostors, Empathy, and Uncle Ezra's Poker Face 18 CHAPTER 4: Game Theory, Emotions, and the Golden Rule of Ethics 31 CHAPTER 5: The Prisoner's Dilemma in Repeated Interactions: Do Drawn Knives Increase Cooperation in the World? 38 CHAPTER 6: On Decency, Insult, and Revenge: Why Don't Suckers Suffer from Disgust? 51 PART II: ON TRUST AND GENEROSITY CHAPTER 7: On Stigmas and Games of Trust: Why Did the Bees Commit Suicide?, 61 CHAPTER 8: Self-Ful?lling Mistrust 69 CHAPTER 9: Cultural Differences, Palestinian Generosity, and Ruth's Mysterious Disappearance, 73 CHAPTER 10: Collective Emotions and Uncle Walter's Trauma 87 CHAPTER 11: The Handicap Principle, the Ten Commandments, and Other Mechanisms for Ensuring Collective Survival, 98 CHAPTER 12: Knowing How to Give, Knowing How to Receive: The Full Half of the Cholent, 110 PART III: ON LOVE AND SEXUALITY CHAPTER 13: The Spray That Will Give Us Love: On the Hormone that Creates Trust and Neutralizes Suspicion 117 CHAPTER 14: On Men, Women, and Evolution: Testing the Myths 121 CHAPTER 15: Make Me a Match Made in Heaven: Reproduction and the Mathematics of Romance 145 CHAPTER 16: From Cavemen Flutes to Bach Fugues: Why Did Evolution Create Art? 160 PART IV: ON OPTIMISM, PESSIMISM, AND GROUP BEHAVIOR CHAPTER 17: Why Are We So Negative? The Arithmetic of Emotions 167 CHAPTER 18: On Arrogance and Humility: The Norwegian Professor's Syndrome173 CHAPTER 19: Overcon?dence and Risk: The It Can't Happen to Me Syndrome 178 CHAPTER 20: The Voice Is Herd: On the Sources of Herd Behavior 189 CHAPTER 21: Team Spirit: The Paradox of the Generous Bonuses and the Lazy Workers 201 PART V: ON RATIONALITY, EMOTIONS, AND GENES CHAPTER 22: Irrational Emotions 219 CHAPTER 23: Nature or Nurture: What Is the Source of Rational Emotions? 228 Epilogue 233 Notes 239 Index 247

Reviews

Eyal Winter's book admirably draws together the important recent work on social and individual behavior and its implications for economic behavior. He shows clearly how the more traditional rational analysis remains an important part of explanation but is by no means adequate. His exposition is breezily informal, yet rigorous; accounts from his family join seamlessly with citations on the literature, to which he himself has made significant contributions. - Kenneth Arrow, Nobel Prize-winning economist

Eyal Winter's book admirably draws together the important recent work on social and individual behavior and its implications for economic behavior. He shows clearly how the more traditional rational analysis remains an important part of explanation but is by no means adequate. His exposition is breezily informal, yet rigorous; accounts from his family join seamlessly with citations on the literature, to which he himself has made significant contributions. -- Kenneth Arrow, Nobel Prize-winning economist

In Feeling Smart Eyal Winter shows us how the emotions that we sometimes wish we didn't have, such as anger and envy, can be surprisingly useful. You will certainly not be less angry after reading this book, but you will better understand the focus that shapes your emotions. --Dan Ariely, bestselling author of Predictably Irrational Feeling Smart puts the social back into social science. The truth is that there's a touchy feely aspect of Game Theory, and Winter shows how expressing and understanding your feelings (and those around you) will help you become a far better strategist. Be smarter or be smarting, your call. --Barry Nalebuff, Milton Steinbach Professor, Yale School of Management, and coauthor of The Art of Strategy Emotions and rationality are often thought of as polar opposites. But Eyal Winter--a leading game theorist and economist--shows compellingly that emotions can actually promote rational behavior. His book makes fascinating reading. --Eric Maskin, Nobel Laureate in Economics It is a pleasure to follow Eyal Winter as he explores the deep logic of illogical emotions and helps us to see the rationality of irrational behavior. --Roger Myerson, Nobel Laureate in Economics Much like Sigmund Freud, Eyal Winter knows that understanding human behavior demands listening and observing rather than labeling and categorizing. But here's what Freud didn't know: that framing his findings in the rigorous language of economic theory would be so illuminating, so surprising, and so exciting. --Robert Lucas, Nobel Laureate in Economics We are used to thinking that emotions such as anger, love, insult, and so forth are irrational. In his new book, Eyal Winter explains why these emotions are actually very rational, fulfilling important functions that usually advance the most vital interests of each of us. This is an important, enjoyable, and convincing book. --Robert J. Aumann, Nobel Laureate in Economics Eyal Winter's book admirably draws together the important recent work on social and individual behavior and its implications for economic behavior. He shows clearly how the more traditional rational analysis remains an important part of explanation, but is by no means adequate. His exposition is breezily informal, yet rigorous; accounts from his family join seamlessly with citations on the literature, to which he himself has made significant contributions. --Kenneth Arrow, Nobel Laureate in Economics Eyal Winter, a distinguished game theorist and behavioral economist, writes about rationality and emotion with compassion and empathy. --Alvin Roth, Nobel Laureate in Economics

Author Information

Eyal Winter is professor of economics and director of the centre for the Study of Rationality at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one of the world's leading institutions in the academic study of decision making. He served as chairman of the economics department at Hebrew University and was the 2011 recipient of the Humboldt Prize, awarded by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany. He has lectured at over 130 universities in 26 countries around the world, including Harvard University, Stanford University, Princeton University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Cambridge.

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