Projekt

The presence (and absence) of emotions in the economic modeling of human behavior have been largely executed and explained so far in relation to integration (and ignorance) of cognitive psychology. Behavioral economics, for instance, is a result of such integration. Revisiting this phenomenon through the lens of the history of emotions accounts for a new interpretation of modeling structures in relation to the societal and cultural context in which these models were crafted. It also allows a firsthand approach to the modeling of human behavior that is not limited to cognition-based instruments but instead openly and directly accounts for emotions as legitimate behavioral factors worthy of analysis. This project replaces the lens of cognitive science with the Lost and Found Emotions framework of Ute Frevert (2011) to generate a new narrative of the path undertaken by economist modelers rooted in the history of emotions in the Western world. The scientific inquiries of mathematical economists will be portrayed and understood as a product of the treatment of emotions in society combined with social scientists' general perception of emotions as soft and thus lacking scientific rigor. A number of interviews add color to this narrative.

• Dr. Dr. Shabnam Mousavi

  Max-Planck-Institut für
  Bildungsforschung
  Berlin