Cookies on this website
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Continue' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Study reveals why sometimes it's a good idea to be irrational

Research

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Research conducted in the lab of Professor Christopher Summerfield has offered insights into why people sometimes make "irrational" choices about economic goods. For example, faced with choices among three goods - for example, apples, oranges and pears - humans who prefer apples over oranges, and oranges over pears should also prefer apples over pears.  However, we sometimes show "intransitive" choices that violate this rational principle (e.g. preferring pears over apples).

Read more (Department of Experimental Psychology website)

Similar stories

Reducing fat in the diabetic heart could improve recovery from heart attack

New research from the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics has shown that in type 2 diabetes an overload of lipids reduces the heart’s ability to generate energy during a heart attack, decreasing chances of recovery.

Brain cortex may regulate the need for sleep

Why we sleep, and the processes behind sleep, are amongst the most interesting questions in modern neuroscience.

New data show rise in hospital admissions for unvaccinated pregnant women

The Chief Midwifery Officer for England will urge expectant mums to have their COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible. This follows a worrying rise in unvaccinated women being admitted to hospital with severe COVID-19, and evidence that the Delta variant poses a significantly greater risk than all previous strains.

Cooking with coal or wood associated with increased risk of major eye diseases

A study involving nearly half a million people in China reveals a clear link between cooking with wood or coal, and an increased risk of major eye diseases that can lead to blindness, according to a report published today in PLOS Medicine.

Oxford vaccine reaches one billion doses released

The University of Oxford’s and our partners AstraZeneca have today announced that one billion doses of the ChAdOx1 nCov-19 coronavirus vaccine have been released, to more than 170 countries, marking a key milestone as part of the University and AstraZeneca’s joint vision to make the available to the world, on a not-for-profit basis for the world during the pandemic, and in perpetuity for low- and middle-income countries.

NCITA Publishes Comment Article in the British Journal of Cancer