Behavioral Science

The controversial science that claims to have revolutionised economics. For centuries, economics was dominated by the idea that we are rational individuals who optimise our own ‘utility’. Then, in the 1970s, psychologists demonstrated that the reality is a lot messier. We don’t really know what our utility is, and we care about people other than ourselves. We are susceptible to external nudges. And far from being perfectly rational, we are prone to ‘cognitive biases’ with complex effects on decision-making, such as forgetting to prepare for retirement.

Sadness is an inevitable part of life, but for most of us it coexists with happiness. Clinical depression, however, unhinges us from everything we know about the world and makes us strangers to those we love. It is the predominant mental-health problem worldwide, affecting more than 250 million people. Yet how much do we really know about the condition and how to treat it? Drawing on his own experience of a disorder that has afflicted humanity throughout history, Oliver Kamm charts the progress of science in understanding depression.