Mind Over Money - Home Use

In the wake of the worst financial crisis in a generation, NOVA investigates what science can tell us about the way we make crucial financial decisions. Traditional economics has little to say about our spending, saving, and investing habits except to assume that we all act rationally-a notion that seems wildly improbable in the current turmoil on Wall Street and beyond. But there's a new breakthrough in social science-behavioral finance-that's taking a more realistic look at our attitudes to money by bringing cognitive psychology and even neuroscience into economics. In a timely and lively exploration, NOVA's Behavioral Economics recreates behavioral finance's most surprising findings and compelling experiments. These include wiring up Wall Street traders so we can watch their brain scans as they buy and sell stocks, exposing a seething interplay of brain activity patterns linked to reason and emotion. Other tests show how too much consumer choice-for instance, between similar brands at a supermarket-can overwhelm our ability to make good decisions. With the help of mini-dramas following real people as they grapple with real financial decisions, Behavioral Economics shows how new theories are revealing unexpected insights into our emotions and behavior in a time of unprecedented crisis in the marketplace.