Homo Experiens, the Biology of Decision-Making, and Behavioral Economics

The standard definition of “behavioral economics” is that it brought insights from psychology to bear on economic decision-making: that is, concepts like using rules-of-thumb in situations with limited information, valuing the present over the future, difficulties in perceiving probabilities accurately, habit formation, peer effects, and more. But the most recent edition of the Behavioral Economics Guide 2026, edited by Alain Samson, includes two essays suggesting that it’s time for additional steps. In a similar spirit, Ulrike Malmendier argues that it’s time to take personal experience effects into account; Isabelle Brocas argues for applying insights from the biological sciences. In “Homo Experiens: Why Behavioral Economics Needs the Life Sciences,” Malmendier points to a body of research which finds (perhaps unsurprisingly to anyone but economists) that past experience influences behavior. For example, the stock-market returns that people have experienced during their lives have a…