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on Neuroeconomics |
| By: | Connor, Dylan S.; Sheehan, Connor; Jang, Jiwon; Kemeny, Tom; Suss, Joel; Molina, Mercedes; Xie, Siqiao; Gu, Zhining; Saenz, Joseph L. |
| Abstract: | Using a new database on the net worth and self-reported cognitive impairment for almost two million adults, this paper provides the first large-scale evidence linking community wealth to age-related cognitive decline. This assessment is timely as widening geographic wealth gaps in the USA fuel disparities in access to public goods and amenities, positioning community wealth as a critical determinant of cognitive health. Conditioning on personal wealth and other risk factors, we find that a standard deviation increase in community wealth is associated with a 6.7% relative risk reduction in cognitive impairment across the national population of older adults, rising to 13.7% for those residing in the poorest fifth of communities. Community wealth matters more than relative inequality, and its associated protective effects are larger for non-white, non-college educated, and low net worth householders. This is plausibly because these individuals rely more on the public goods and services underwritten by local affluence. The economic fragmentation of American communities thus poses a growing threat to the cognitive health of Americans, especially among those from socially vulnerable and marginalized backgrounds. |
| Keywords: | spatial wealth inequality; aging; subjective cognitive impairment; cognitive health; ADRD |
| JEL: | N0 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:130328 |
| By: | Giuseppe Ciccarone; Giovanni Di Bartolomeo; Valentina Peruzzi; Maria Luigia Signore |
| Abstract: | We model creativity as capital built by costly cognitive effort that complements social capital and is often accompanied by routines that economize attention and time. Higher effort costs deter entry into the creative state, while openness and trust increase the productivity of cognitive effort mainly through creative capital. Using lab-in-the-field data from an Italian music festival and a recursive bivariate probit, we find that costs depress creativity, whereas creativity strongly boosts festival collaboration, volunteering, and territorial cooperation. Consistent with a routinization perspective, the creativity–engagement link is stronger when participation occurs in more socially "structured" environments. To encourage creativity, policies should reduce cognitive frictions and improve the productivity of cognitive effort. |
| Keywords: | Creativity; cognitive effort; social capital; routinization; field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 C35 D01 Z13 O31 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sap:wpaper:wp267 |
| By: | Halenta, David (Picyboo Cybernetics Inc., CA) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes an integrative interdisciplinary framework to distinguish perceptual distortion from misconduct in legal evaluations of police culpability. The analysis examines how neurocognitive processes (brain-based cognitive functions) shape perception under high-stress conditions, particularly in police use-of-force incidents. Drawing on validated theories of predictive processing (the brain’s mechanism of anticipating sensory input based on prior experience) and evidence from perceptual neuroscience, the paper argues that some misconduct cases may involve genuine perceptual distortions (misinterpretations of sensory input caused by internal biases or stress-induced errors) rather than deliberate wrongdoing. It synthesizes research on the free-energy principle (a theory suggesting the brain reduces prediction error by either adjusting expectations or interpreting sensory input to fit those expectations), source monitoring theory (a model explaining how the brain identifies where a memory came from, and may confuse real sources or conflate internal and external origins), and emotional attention modulation (how emotional states influence what we notice, overlook, or prioritize in our environment) to explain how neurocognitive biases can produce vivid but erroneous threat perceptions. Rather than excusing harm, this approach aims to support more accurate allocation of responsibility between cognitive limitations and institutional failures in training, screening, and policy. The paper advocates for integrating neuroscientific insights into legal doctrine through reformed culpability standards that distinguish perceptual error from cognitive bias (systematic deviations from rational judgment caused by mental shortcuts or stress), while emphasizing accountability measures that reflect predictable human constraints. |
| Date: | 2025–09–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:lawarc:n32er_v1 |
| By: | Charlotte Cordes; Jana Friedrichsen; Simeon Schudy |
| Abstract: | Experimental studies show that individuals update beliefs about ego-relevant information optimistically when they expect no resolution of uncertainty but neutrally when their ability is revealed immediately. This paper studies belief updating and the role of motivated memory when feedback is delayed but eventually disclosed. In a longitudinal experiment, participants receive noisy signals about their relative performance in a IQ-related task (Raven matrices) and learn their true rank four weeks later. Across subjects, belief updating is asymmetric: unfavorable signals are weighted less than favorable signals. Further, we identify motivated memory among participants who view the task as ego-relevant. |
| Keywords: | motivated beliefs, feedback, memory, Anticipatory utility, motivated cognition, uncertainty |
| JEL: | C91 D03 D81 D83 D84 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12286 |