单选题 Las Vegas uses flashing lights and ringing bells to create an illusion of reward and to encourage risk taking. Insurance company offices present a more somber mood to remind us of our mortality. Every marketer knows that context and presentation influence our decisions.
For the first time, economists are studying these phenomena scientifically. The economists are using a new technology that allows them to trace the activity of neurons inside the brain and thereby study how emotions influence our choices, including economic choices like gambles and investments.
For instance, when humans are in a "positive arousal state", they think about prospective benefits and enjoy the feeling of risk. All of us are familiar with the giddy excitement that accompanies a triumph. Camelia Kuhnen and Brian Knutson, two researchers at Stanford University, have found that people are more likely to take a foolish risk when their brains show this kind of activation.
But when people think about costs, they use different brain modules and become more anxious. They play it too safe, at least in the laboratory. Furthermore, people are especially afraid of ambiguous risks with unknown odds. This may help explain why so many investors are reluctant to seek out foreign stock markets, even when they could diversify their portfolios at low cost.
If one truth shines through, it is that people are not consistent or fully rational decision makers. Peter L. Bossaerts, an economics professor at the California Institute of Technology, has found that brains assess risk and return separately, rather than making a single calculation of what economists call expected utility.
Researchers can see on the screen how people compartmentalize their choices into different parts of their brains. This may not always sound like economics but neuro-economists start with the insight—borrowed from the economist Friedrich Hayek—that resources are scarce within the brain and must be allocated to competing uses. Whether in economies or brains, well-functioning systems should not be expected to exhibit centralized command and control.
Neuro-economics is just getting started. The first major empirical paper was published in 2001 by Kevin McCabe, Daniel Houser, Lee Ryan, Vernon Smith and Theodore Trouard, all economics professors. (Professors McCabe, Houser and Smith are colleagues of mine at George Mason University.) A neuro-economics laboratory at Caltech, led by Colin F. Camerer, a math prodigy and now an economics professor, has assembled the foremost group of interdisciplinary researchers. Many of the early entrants, who have learned neurology as well as economics, continue to dominate the field.
Investors are becoming interested in the money-making potential of these ideas. Imagine training traders to set their emotions aside or testing their objectivity in advance with brain scans. Futuristic devices might monitor their emotions on the trading floor or in a bargaining session and instruct them how to compensate for possible mistakes.
单选题 According to the article, many investors are not willing to invest in foreign stock markers, because ______.
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题为事实细节题。A项,从第四段中,“Furthermore, people are especially afraid of ambiguous risks with unknown odds. This may help explain why so many investors are reluctant to seek out foreign stock markets”,表明了许多人不愿开拓国外股市,只是出于对未知事物的恐惧,A项,说不感兴趣,显然不对。B项,文中说的是国外股市,不投资只是对国外股市不了解,而并非对股市投资没经验,B项不符。C项,第四段最后一句“even when they could diversify their portfolios at low cost.”说明不是投入资金的问题,因此不符。D项与原文一致。
单选题 According to the article, which one of the following has unusual talent in mathematics?
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 本题为事实细节题。第七段中提到Colin F. Camerer, a math prodigy,所以应该选择C项,其余选项虽然在文中提及了,但与题干无关,所以可排除。
单选题 What can be inferred from the article?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 本题为推理判断题。A、C、D项均是原文告知的信息,只有B项是推论,所以选B项。
单选题 Which one of the following statements is NOT true?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 本题为是非判断题。A项,根据第五段brains assess risk and return separately(各个大脑系统对事物分别作出评估,然后分别反馈回去)可知A项是对的。B项,根据that resources are scarce within the brain(大脑内部的资源是很有限的)可知B项是对的。C项,根据Investors are becoming interested in the money-making potential of these ideas.(投资者开始对这些理论帮助他们获取潜在利益的可能性感兴趣)。D项中的sprightly意为“明快地”,与第一段中的present a somber mood(以一种阴沉的、低调的姿态)相矛盾,故D项错误。
单选题 Neuro-Economics doesn"t study ______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】[解析] 本题为事实细节题。A、B、D三项均为神经经济学研究的范畴,只有C项,根据第五段中的rather than making a single calculation of what economists call expected utility可知,Neuro-economists推翻了此观点,因此C项并不是神经经济学研究的对象。