A pattern of Bryan Caplan’s work is to demonstrate, much like Hanson does, how observed human behaviour can be modeled as rational, but we often don’t notice, and the reason why is because the cause of the observed behaviour is a truth we don’t want to admit about ourselves. This is what gets you conclusions like how it’s rational for people not to vote, or the real reason most Americans pursue post-secondary education is mostly to acquire a credential for signaling purposes. The first part of Caplan’s heuristic is to find an alternative explanation for observed behaviour at first perceived to be irrational. If we follow the assumption human behaviour can be modeled on some level, even if individuals aren’t always aware of it themselves, as a rational economic agent with some value function, goals or whatnot.
This is what comes to mind when I read Gwern’s explanation. It could be the case people are acting perfectly rational in their consumption of art because there is some value in how people consume art that isn’t accounted for in prices or current economic explanations. It could just as easily be the case the professional art world is full of pieces selling at inflated prices for all manner of silly reasons. That is the prevailing hypothesis of anyone I’ve ever discussed the subject with.
A pattern of Bryan Caplan’s work is to demonstrate, much like Hanson does, how observed human behaviour can be modeled as rational, but we often don’t notice, and the reason why is because the cause of the observed behaviour is a truth we don’t want to admit about ourselves. This is what gets you conclusions like how it’s rational for people not to vote, or the real reason most Americans pursue post-secondary education is mostly to acquire a credential for signaling purposes. The first part of Caplan’s heuristic is to find an alternative explanation for observed behaviour at first perceived to be irrational. If we follow the assumption human behaviour can be modeled on some level, even if individuals aren’t always aware of it themselves, as a rational economic agent with some value function, goals or whatnot.
This is what comes to mind when I read Gwern’s explanation. It could be the case people are acting perfectly rational in their consumption of art because there is some value in how people consume art that isn’t accounted for in prices or current economic explanations. It could just as easily be the case the professional art world is full of pieces selling at inflated prices for all manner of silly reasons. That is the prevailing hypothesis of anyone I’ve ever discussed the subject with.