Michael Covel speaks with Laurie Santos on today’s podcast. Santos is 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. Covel and Santos discuss some of 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”; and why we have trouble accepting cognitive limitations rather than our biological limitations. For more information on Laurie Santos visit www.yale.edu/caplab. Want a free trend following DVD? Go to trendfollowing.com/win.