A Psychophysiological Approach to Solving Current Problems of Behavioral Economics

The prospects for further development of behavioral economics are largely related to its integration with other human sciences, including psychophysiology. Taking into account the mechanisms of mental activity can be useful in considering and modeling human economic behavior at the individual and group levels, in analyzing the regional characteristics of economic behavior of the population. In this regard, it may be promising to use the innovative ideas of the psychophysiologist academician E.N. Sokolov’s research focuses on the mechanisms of anticipatory perception (anticipatory refl ection), neural models of stimulus, the psychophysiology of the orienting refl ex, and vector psychophysiology when considering key areas of behavioral economics such as decision-making in conditions of uncertainty. Since psychophysiology, behavioral, cognitive economics, and neuroeconomics initially developed independently of each other, Sokolov’s concept has signifi cant potential for a comprehensive study of the mechanisms of human economic behavior described by D. Kahneman, A. Tversky and their followers. The purpose of the article is to clarify the complementary elements and existing contradictions of a number of key concepts that are developing in psychophysiology and economic psychology, to outline the directions of using the conceptual model of the orienting refl ex by E.N. Sokolov as an explanatory scheme of the mechanism of economic decision-making.