Trend Following With Michael Covel

My guest today is Laurie Santos, a professor of psychology and cognitive sciences at Yale University. Her research explores the evolutionary origins of the human mind by comparing the cognitive abilities of human and non-human primates. Santos is able to look at monkeys and their behavior in markets and money, and see the similarities with humans. The topic is cognitive abilities. In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss: Santos' early "ah-ha" moments Teaching monkeys about currencies Whether the monkey economy is as irrational as ours The endowment effect How monkeys' behavior in markets quantitatively matches human behavior Whether some monkeys took to the experimental economy better than others Mistakes and predictable errors Why humans might be uniquely irrational when it comes to enjoying what we pay more for Vernon Smith's work Relationships between Santos' work and the financial crisis of 2008 Bubbles, monkeys, and Daniel Kahneman The "G.I. Joe fallacy" Why we have trouble accepting cogniti