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Tools, drugs, and signals in the road from evolution to money

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2006

Federico Sanabria*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ85287-1104http://www.public.asu.edu/~fsanabri/

Abstract

The problem of the biology of money is twofold: It subsumes both the identification of behavioral mechanisms that account for the power of money as an incentive, and the elucidation of the phylogeny of such mechanisms. The drugs–tool distinction, as articulated by Lea & Webley (L&W) in their fascinating synthesis, is a welcome step toward their solution. Compared to the direct invocation of instinctual drives, however, conditioning processes provide a conceptually and empirically clearer road from evolution to money.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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