UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) In brains we trust: How neuroeconomists stylize trust, the brain, and the social world Klaassen, P. Publication date 2014 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Klaassen, P. (2014). In brains we trust: How neuroeconomists stylize trust, the brain, and the social world. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:02 Oct 2021 204069-os-Klaassen.indd 1 11-09-14 13:48 In Brains We Trust How neuroeconomists stylize trust, the brain, and the social world Pim Klaassen ISBN: 978-94-6259-337-4 c Pim Klaassen Printed and bound by Ipskamp drukkers, Amsterdam 2014. Publication of this dissertation was supported by the the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis and the Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam. In Brains We Trust How neuroeconomists stylize trust, the brain, and the social world ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof.dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op vrijdag 24 oktober 2014, te 11:00 uur door Pim Klaassen geboren te Rotterdam Promotiecommissie Promotor: Prof.dr.ir. G.H. de Vries Overige leden: Prof.dr. H.O. Dijstelbloem Dr. J.D. Kiverstein Prof.dr. A. Roepstorff Prof.dr. M.J.B. Stokhof Prof.dr. S. Woolgar Prof.dr. H.A.E. Zwart Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen voor Détje Cover design by Gerben Starink. Images used: Greg Dunn, Cerebral Cortex (http://goo.gl/hCvnSp); Laura Jacobson, Resonance Punctuated (http://goo.gl/imFnfC); Cynthia Rae, Brain Beanie (http://goo.gl/7qiI4r). Acknowledgements There is something odd about this book—perhaps about every book, but certainly about this one. It is, of course, the fruit of my individual labor, and to a large extent the descrip- tion of how it came about overlaps with the stereotypical account of the solitarily toiling Phd candidate. But whereas, in accordance with this image of people struggling to attain their doctorate, only I am (possibly) awarded a Phd for this dissertation, several theses this thesis defends concern the collective nature of knowledge practices. And even if I have written this book, it would not have been if it were not for so many people that a single touringcar could not carry them. Thus, in accordance with what this book claims about (social neuro-) science, it should itself be seen simultaneously as mine and as the product of a collective of people, practices and technologies. And although I would like to thank all who contributed to it in some way or other, I will try to be a bit more specific here. To briefly start at the very end of the trajectory leading up to this book: thank you Sheri, for your editing and the enormous speed with which you did so, and Jelle, for doing a great job at Ipskamp Drukkers. Now let us turn to the summer of 2008, when the journey leading up to this dissertation began. Gerard de Vries at that time offered me a job at the philosophy department of the University of Amsterdam, to work in a combined position as lecturer and Phd candidate. As I was looking for a research position then, I happily said yes; it proved to be the start of an exciting ride. I am most grateful to Gerard for the trust he put in me and the op- portunity (and instructions) he gave, and that helped me learn a lot and develop myself as researcher, lecturer and person. As time went by, I have come to appreciate Gerard’s “Montessori-style” of supervision more and more—here is a man who knows how to teach people to do things themselves. A lot of inspiration and useful feedback I have got at various events sponsored by the European Neuroscience and Society Network (ENSN), including a week in Vienna and an extended stay as “philosopher in residence” at Aarhus University’s Interacting Minds Centre. All those I have met and discussed with during these ENSN meetings I would like to thank, but my special gratitude goes out to Tanja and Stephan, whom I teamed up with vii viii | Acknowledgements in Vienna, and Andreas, Jakob, Brian, Torben, Micah, Ivana, Dan and all the others whom I have learned so much from in Aarhus, and who made my stay there not only informative, but also very enjoyable. Also the KNAW summer school on the neurobiological society organized by Trudy and Amade I have experienced as very inspirational, and in addition to its organizers I would like to thank all attendees. In addition to Gerard, a few other people have also been there for as long as the journey lasted. One is Elena, who with her wit and enthusiasm has always been there for me and has always managed to encourage me—even at times I must have been quite hard to cope with, and even when I decided to leave her behind in Amsterdam with our six-months old son, while I went off investigating social neuroscience in Aarhus. Another person who has been really close by during the entire adventure, of course, is Guus—colleague, paranimf, friend. Without a doubt, there is no one I have spend more time with during the process of investigating and writing that led to this book than Guus, and I thank him for always being there to listen to my worries and my hunches, to witness (and suffer from) my frustrations, and to celebrate the infrequent small-time victories that fortunately have also been part of the process—and this for more than five years, on an almost day-to-day basis. Also always there were my parents Aad and Ellen, although I am afraid that they might mostly have noticed my occasional annoyances with the project. Of course I thank them for their help during my exchange visit to Aarhus—Ellen for the long travel and the equally long days of babysitting, Aad for the generosity he showed by sharing Ellen. More than that, though, I thank them for their support throughout the years, the confidence they never ceased in showing, and the questions they did, and, at least as important, did not ask. For similar reasons, I would also like to thank my close friends Cathelijn, Daan, Eva, Filipe, Gerben, Hedde, Inger, Irene, Joska, Lotte (twice), Luis, Martijn, Wietse and Willemine. And now that I have mentioned Gerben—thank you for the beautiful cover you have designed. For completely different reasons, I would like to thank Jona, who has made my life as a Phd candidate simultaneously so much more colorful, fun, rewarding and, last but not least, tiring. Of course, some of the fellow Phd candidates who came and went have also been of great help. Thank you Lukas, Martin, Sara and Yrrah for all the discussions we had, Berend, for staying with me at the end and providing a refuge, and my dear friend, fellow traveler and paranimf Willemine, for your enthusiasm, the confidence you gave me, and the example you set. From a related category, I would like to thank all those colleagues I have had the pleasure of working with. Thus, for a variety of reasons I am indebted to Beate, Chantal, Erik, Gijs, Huub, Jaap, Jack Jan, Jacques, Jelle, Johan, Julian, Karel, Karen, Katrin, Maarten, Martin, Marijke, Michiel, Nico, Suzanne, all members of the “Innovatielab” (but especially Eva Acknowledgements | ix and Robbert), and many others. Furthermore, I would like to thank all the bright students whom I had the opportunity to test the ideas developed in this dissertation on, especially in MA courses I taught and in dissertation projects I supervised. Femke, Henry, Jaco, Jolien, Keje and Ziggy are only some of the names I will not easily forget. By the end of the summer of 2012, I started to feel I was approaching the end of the process leading towards this book—mistakenly, I can say now. As that happened, I decided that I had to take up sporting again, convinced as I was (and am) of the pertinence of the antique phrase mens sana in corpore sano. And whereas its original author Juvenal thought that having a sound mind in a sound body is something one should pray for, I prefer combining exercise and practicing philosophy to achieve this. From the birth of my son Jona in September 2009 onwards, I had done little more than an occasional run in the park or trip on my catamaran, but this had never felt quite right. And so, even though I am quite content with the one I have had all my life, I met an additional Family—Benjamin, Eric, Leontien, Mo, Mounir and all those others at the Family Gym whom I would like to thank for either providing such good and inviting atmosphere at the gym, giving such bodily-exhausting but mind-refreshing spinning classes, or both.