Journal of East China Normal University(Educationa ›› 2015, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (1): 67-76.

• Psychology(心理学) • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Embodied Economics: A New Approach to Exploring Economic Psychology and Behaviors

DOU Dong hui ; PENG Kai ping ; YU Feng ; LIU Xiao cen   

  1. 1. Department of Psychology at School of Social Development, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing 100081, China;2. Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; 3. School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China;4.College of Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing 10082, China
  • Online:2015-04-24 Published:2015-05-12
  • Contact: DOU Dong hui ; PENG Kai ping ; YU Feng ; LIU Xiao cen
  • About author:DOU Dong hui ; PENG Kai ping ; YU Feng ; LIU Xiao cen

Abstract: Traditional economics has long been a disembodied economics, excluding physical factors from its theoretical system. Instead, embodied economics is an approach to (neuro)economics that takes into account how information provided by bodily signals, the physical presence and displacements of others (or its imagination) influence the way we make economic decisions. A large number of recent economics psychological researches on how movements, gestures and body states influence decisionmaking, evaluation, risktaking and consumer behaviors have laid a solid empirical foundation for embodied economics. A better understanding of the impact of physical factors on our economic thinking and behaviors helps to enrich our knowledge of the dynamics of economic decisionmaking in individual and social contexts, thus making both economics and psychology relevant to real life.

Key words: embodied economics, embodied theory, economic decision making