051: Eyal Winter on How Excessive Giving Ensures the Survival of the Human Race and on the Beautiful Mind of John Nash

Eyal Winter is the Silverzweig Professor of Economics at the Hebrew University and Economics Professor at Leicester University.

He is a member and a former director of the Center for the Study of Rationality, an elected council member of the International Game Theory Society and an elected fellow of the Economic Theory Society.

Eyal was awarded the Humboldt Prize for excellence in research by the German government in 2010. He has presented his work in more than 120 research institutes in 26 countries around the world including Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Berkeley, Cambridge, and Oxford.

Eyal’s book Feeling Smart: Why our Emotions are More Rational Than We Think was published in January 2015.

Eyal graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Mathematics, Statistics and Economics before going on to study his doctorate in Game Theory.

In this episode you will learn:

• if there is a link between game theory and behavioral economics.

• how the perceptions of human behaviour vary greatly across all disciplines.

• if there is a need to have divisions in universities regarding the disciplines being taught.

• how we can use emotion in a strategic way to make us better off.

• why human evolution has not removed emotion if it’s considered a hindrance in economics.

• the importance of training your rationality and emotions to work together.

• why you should look at something from an outsiders perspective when dealing with an emotional situation.

• how anger can be an emotion that can make you financially better off.

• why love, empathy and sympathy can make you better-off in the way how other people treat us.

• what Eyal Winter means when he says that there is logic in emotion and emotion in logic.

• how subjective information is more powerful than evidence-based information.

• why intuition should be taken into consideration in the decision-making process rather than using evidence alone.

• why you should invoke your rationality into the decision-making process rather than rely on your gut instinct.

• how game theory is not always about choosing the most optimal outcome for an individual.

• how we can learn why humans give excessively by observing the behavior of ants and bees.

• about the incentives of suicide bombers and why their behavior is not irrational if you think about their community.

• why we treat each other much better than we treat animals.

• about the incentive to donate and how mixed ethnic communities donate less than more homogenous communities.

• why the Scandinavian countries are willing to pay the highest taxes and yet have the lowest tax evasion in the world.

• why it was fascinating yet frustrating for Eyal Winter when he met John Nash.

• why John Nash developed the Nash Equilibrium to reflect his own way of dealing with people and situations.

• if we can change people’s behaviour with incentives or social pressure.

• whether children have a higher emotional intelligence than adults.

• if seeing a comedian live would be better than seeing your doctor if you feel sad.

• whether employees should be subjected to ‘Emotional Labor’ by their employers.

Influencers:

Nobel Laureate Bob Aumann

Economics:

In this interview, Eyal mentions: game theory, rationality, irrationality, human behavior, donations, incentives,

Economists:

In this interview, Eyal mentions: Herbert Gintis, Bob Aumann and John Nash.

Personal Habits:

Play Guitar – Traditional Israeli songs and rock, listens to classical music and travel.

“The human race has only one effective weapon, and that is laughter.” -Mark Twain

Click To Tweet

Books:

• Feeling Smart: Why our Emotions are More Rational Than We Think by Eyal Winter
• Mapping Human History: Genes, Race and Our Common Origins by Stephen Olson

Resources:

• Psychology Today 
• Haaretz Newspaper 

Song:

• The Famous Blue Raincoat by Leonard Cohen sung by Professor Eyal Winter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download