Introduction to A Research Agenda for Economic Psychology

Abstract

Economic psychology studies the perception and understanding of economic phenomena, financial decision-making and behaviour, egoistic and altruistic mind-sets and cooperation, emotions and well-being (Van Raaij, 1981). The study of humans’ economic mental representations and behaviour can be traced back to Greek philosophers and seventeenth-century economists (Ranyard, 2018). However, the history of psychological engagement in the field started rather late, at the beginning of the twentieth century (Kirchler and Hoelzl, 2018).