From anecdotes to novels: Reflective inputs for behavioural economics

Abstract

Thaler's deployment of anomalous anecdotes has helped raise the profile of behavioural economics. This paper explores possible uses of other narrative materials as aids to economic research. After examining the use of anecdotes in economics, the paper reviews opportunities to use a wide range of more extensive reflective materials. Two text-based applications are then presented: the first uses material from consumer magazines, the second draws from novels by David Lodge. Both applications call into question conventional thinking regarding the degree of substitution between product characteristics, while the second is also instructive regarding the processes by which economic activities are coordinated.

Keywords:

• introspection
• protocol analysis
• case study method
• deconstruction
• non-compensatory decision rules

Notes

1. Allen's (2002) use of outsourced introspection to study tertiary education choices reveals the enduring significance of social conventions: lower-class students operated very much like cultural dopes but even middle-class students who tried to be more analytical in their choices also tended to end up selecting an institutions simply because it ‘fitted like a glove’ in terms of their socio-historically-formed expectations of what kind of college would be right for them.