Markets against Modernity

In Markets Against Modernity, economist Ryan Murphy documents a clear continuity between the systematic errors people make in their personal lives and the gaps between public opinion and informed opinion. These errors cluster around specific divergences between how the modern world’s institutions function—including global markets, pluralistic democracy, and even science itself—and how evolution trained our brains to understand the nature of economic relationships, social relationships, and humanity’s relationship to the physical world. Murphy calls these systematic divergences Ecological Irrationality. Exploring them leads him to even more prickly questions—and to conclusions that may challenge the beliefs of those who understand that, for instance, modern vaccines are safe and effective. Do we actually want a less cohesive society? Is doing a task yourself financially prudent? And if we recognize an expert consensus, is there even a way to implement it and achieve the desired effects?

“Ryan Murphy is one of our most creative and contrarian young political economists.  Markets against Modernity: Ecological Irrationality, Public and Private will make you ponder questions you didn’t know existed.”, “Ryan Murphy has written a book that is both humorous and quite thought-provoking, discussing the many ways that our mental biases lead us to make seemingly irrational lifestyle choices.  Murphy shines a spotlight on many areas of consumer behavior that are often overlooked by economists, such as ‘buy local’, ‘do-it-yourself’, and ‘natural' products.  My favorite parts of the book offer contrarian perspectives on issues that we might have assumed we already understood, such as conspicuous consumption and social capital. This book will appeal to readers who enjoyed Bryan Caplan's The Myth of the Rational Voter and Simler and Hanson's The Elephant in the Brain.”

Ryan H. Murphy is research associate professor at the O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom at Southern Methodist University.