相关内容：雅思口语技巧 雅思听力技巧 雅思写作技巧

请点击山东雅思考试动态

  ★The Triumph of Unreason

    A.Neoclassical economics is built on the assumption that humans are
rational beings who have a clear idea of their best interests and strive
to extract maximum benefit（or“utility ”， in economist-speak ） from
any situation.Neoclassical economics assumes that the process of decision-making
is rational.But that contradicts growing evidence that decision-making
draws on the emotions —even when reason is clearly involved.

    B.The role of emotions in decisions makes perfect sense.For situations
met frequently in the past， such as obtaining food and mates ， and confronting
or fleeing from threats ， the neural mechanisms required to weigh up
the pros and cons will have been honed by evolution to produce an optimal
outcome.Since emotion is the mechanism by which animals are prodded towards
such outcomes ， evolutionary and economic theory predict the same practical
consequences for utility in these cases.But does this still apply when
the ancestral machinery has to respond to the stimuli of urban modernity？

    C.One of the people who thinks that it does not is George Loewenstein，
an economist at Carnegie Mellon University， in Pittsburgh.In particular，
he suspects that modern shopping has subverted the decision-making machinery
in a way that encourages people to run up debt.To prove the point he has
teamed up with two psychologists， Brian Knutson of Stanford University
and Drazen Prelec of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology， to look
at what happens in the brain when it is deciding what to buy.

    D.In a study， the three researchers asked 26 volunteers to decide
whether to buy a series of products such as a box of chocolates or a DVD
of the television show that were flashed on a computer screen one after
another.In each round of the task ， the researchers first presented the
product and then its price， with each step lasting four seconds.In the
final stage ， which also lasted four seconds ， they asked the volunteers
to make up their minds.While the volunteers were taking part in the experiment，
the researchers scanned their brains using a technique called functional
magnetic resonance imaging（fMRI）。This measures blood flow and oxygen
consumption in the brain， as an indication of its activity.

    E.The researchers found that different parts of the brain were involved
at different stages of the test.The nucleus accumbens was the most active
part when a product was being displayed.Moreover， the level of its activity
correlated with the reported desirability of the product in question.

    F.When the price appeared ， however， fMRI reported more activity
in other parts of the brain.Excessively high prices increased activity
in the insular cortex ， a brain region linked to expectations of pain，
monetary loss and the viewing of upsetting pictures.The researchers also
found greater activity in this region of the brain when the subject decided
not to purchase an item.

更多山东雅思培训知识查询电话：400-879-2720  0531--58651558  qq：3285244682