I've found the past couple days' assessment and response to Roland Fryer immensely gratifying. It's not that I care about Fryer. I consider much of economics to be *just-so* storytelling limited by the specific cultural psychology over which it is mapped. To me, economics is less universal science of the human exchange of goods and services than it is western post hoc rationalization of the uniquely western instantiation of methods for the exchange of goods and services. Much of the back and forth, round and about on the rigor or insightfulness of Fryer's work bears this contention out.
What tickles me enough here to comment about it, is that I believe I see a digitally-accelerated, racially-motivated instantiation of the following;
1. JUST FOR KICKSIn 2002, a team of researchers led by psychiatrist Gregory Berns from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, used brain imaging to find out what is going on inside our heads when we cooperate. They discovered that when players work together in the prisoner's dilemma game (see Diagram), the active parts of their brain include the orbitofrontal cortex and the striatum - areas associated with processing reward (Neuron, vol 35, p 395). And, last year, economist Ernst Fehr and psychologist Dominique de Quervain of the University of Zurich discovered that we get a similar mental buzz when we punish cheats, even when it means incurring a personal monetary cost (Science, vol 305, p 1254).
2. IT's GOOD FOR THE IMAGEPunishing others who don't toe the line can boost your reputation, as a recent study by anthropologists Rob Boyd and Karthik Panchanathan of the University of California at Los Angeles shows. Using computer simulations, they explored the benefits of a strategy of punishment that entails simply shunning others with a bad reputation and helping those with a good reputation. By doing this, individuals can enhance their own standing, they found. What's more, by altering their behaviour according to people's reputations, these individuals minimise the cost of meting out punishment and gain the edge over indiscriminate cooperators who help anyone regardless of reputation (Nature, vol 432, p 499).
The article in its entirety focuses on the structural and functional basis of cooperation. It's economics alrighty, or game theory at least, but anytime you add the fMRI data and watch what the old noodle is up to whilst the sapiens are sapienting, BLAM!!! it kicks it up just that extra little notch required to give me a mental buzz and make me feel like we're no longer in the land of just-so storytelling, but have meandered into the domain of an objective science..., oh, and I very much respect the Punisher role itself..., I think we'll see more and more of this as we enter the twilight of the western era..., and that's a good thing!!!
Keep movin', movin', movin', Though they're disapprovin', Keep them dogies movin', rawhide. Don't try to understand 'em, Just rope 'em, throw, and brand 'em. Soon we'll be livin' high and wide. My heart's calculatin', My true love will be waitin', Be waitin' at the end of my ride.Posted by at March 23, 2005 11:50 AM | TrackBackMove 'em on, head 'em up,
Head 'em up, move 'em on,
Move 'em on, head 'em up, rawhide!
Head 'em out, ride 'em in,
Ride 'em in, let 'em out,
Cut 'em out, ride 'em in, rawhide!Keep rollin', rollin', rollin',
Though the streams are swollen,
Keep them dogies rollin', rawhide.
Through rain and wind and weather,
Hell bent for leather,
Wishin' my gal was by my side.
All the things I'm missin',
Good vittles, love and kissin',
Are waiting at the end of my ride.Move 'em on, head 'em up,
Head 'em up, move 'em on,
Move 'em on, head 'em up, rawhide!
Head 'em out, ride 'em in,
Ride 'em in, let 'em out,
Cut 'em out, ride 'em in, rawhide!
RAWHIDE!!!