Title: How to Learn About Human Behavior - Mindcoolness
Headings: How to Learn About Human Behavior
How to Learn About Human Behavior
The Politics of Human Behavior
Four Ways to Learn About Human Behavior
1. Personal Experience
2. Philosophy
3. Psychology
4. Sociology & Economics

Content: On the one hand, ‘nudging’ choice architects may positively influence people’s well-being (read Nudge by R. H. Thaler & C. R. Sunstein). On the other hand, most well-intended (or self-congratulatory) projects of social engineers turn out to be gross failures (read The Vision of the Anointed by Thomas Sowell), and these failures cannot be identified on the small-scale level of psychology. 4. Sociology & Economics
On a large scale, we can study human behavior through the quantitative methods of sociology and economics. They give us insights about how humans behave not as individuals but as societies. Humans are members of classes, communities, cultures, and civilizations, and their behavior on these higher levels of analysis cannot be sufficiently predicted by psychological findings—just like individual behavior cannot be sufficiently predicted by neurological analyses. 1 Sociologists and economists produce evidence that is vital for political decision making, be it as a politician or as a voting citizen (read Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell). The problem with sociology and economics is that we usually disregard these fields in favor of the other three types of understanding human behavior, which leads us to make political decisions based on our personal experiences, our philosophical/ideological conception of human nature, and our knowledge of psychological facts. All these kinds of knowledge are valuable to an extent, but the prevailing source of guidance should always match the level of analysis: if we want to know what’s best for a human being, we shall study psychology (without forgetting the underlying biological drives);