Behavioral science: A progress report

A prominent neuroscientist has recently observed that "More may have been learned about the brain and the mind in the 1990s... than during the entire previous history of psychology and neuroscience" [1]. This wonderful progress, which should continue at an exponentially increasing pace as we move into the 21(st) century, sets the stage for another revolution - in the scientific formulation of intentional behavior. Just as applied sciences such as fluid mechanics and solid-state electronics benefited from breakthroughs in physics, so it may be expected that social psychology and economics, for example, will similarly benefit from our expanding knowledge of psychosomatic and psychological function. Economics, however, with its basic concepts dating from the nineteenth century, must endure an extensive renewal. Toward this end, a new mathematical theory of behavior was formulated in the early 1990s based on the contributions of prominent psychologists and economists over the past two centuries. Presentation of the new approach at international conferences continued in 2000 with attention moving beyond the fundamentals into macroeconomic concerns including business cycles, productivity, and unemployment.