93 - Moshe Hoffman: Altruism, irrationality, and the psychology of aesthetics

Rachel chats with Moshe Hoffman, a Lecturer and Independent Scholar at Harvard’s Department of Economics. Moshe uses game theory to explore the evolutionary bases of human behavior, from altruistic donations to our taste in music. His recent book, co-authored with Dr. Erez Yoeli, is “Hidden Games: The Surprising power of Game Theory to Explain Irrational Human Behavior.”

In this episode, Rachel and Moshe discuss how incentives shape empathy, how saying "I love you" enables social coordination, and why we appreciate the music of rapper MF Doom.

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Links:

"Hidden Games: The Surprising power of Game Theory to Explain Irrational Human Behavior" 

"An Evolutionary Explanation for Ineffective Altruism" Bethany Burum, Martin Nowak, Moshe Hoffman (Appendix), Nature Human Behavior (2020)

Twitter: @Moshe_Hoffman

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/hoffmanmoshe/ 

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