I am a member of the Social Brain Project steering group directed by Dr Matt Grist at the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

"In policy circles, the implicitly assumed model of decision-making in the last thirty years or so has been that of ‘rational-choice’. This model, imported from economics, represents people as perfectly rational and wholly self-interested.

A slew of recent research in the neuro- and behavioural sciences has brought the usefulness of the model into question, showing that people are often systematically ‘irrational’ and not only self-interested. This means we should perhaps be more humble about our rational powers yet more optimistic about our ‘prosocial’ possibilities.'

Working with a collaborative group the project aims on produce a new model of decision-making that is informed by such research.