Behavioral economics aspires to replace the agents of neoclassical economics with living, breathing human beings. Here, the author argues that behavioral economics, like its neoclassical counterpart, often neglects the role of active sense-making that motivates and guides much human behavior....

Prior laboratory experiments have studied general equilibrium economies constructed from \induced preferences" for artificial goods. We introduce new methods that allow us to study economies constructed instead from subjects' actual, \homegrown" preferences. Our subjects reveal their preferences...