Emotion, not rationality, rules our world – something policymakers should learn. So says David Brooks, who uses fiction to illustrate cognitive science
Where did the idea for your book The Social Animal come from?
It came from covering policy failures as a journalist. For example, one factor in the financial crisis were regulations that assumed bankers made decisions rationally. Also, in education, we in the US have spent 30 years just reorganising the bureaucratic boxes of our education system.
These failures were based on a false view of human nature, which is that we are rational individuals who respond in straightforward…
