About
Our purpose
A serious, independent journal exploring how humans think, decide and live, at the intersection of economics, rationality, behaviour and psychology.
The mission
We publish long reads, data stories, multi-part series, a podcast and book reviews on economics, rationality, behaviour and psychology. The ambition is modest to state and hard to keep: a more thoughtful conversation about what it means to be human.
We are independent. No owner, no advertiser and no institution decides what we cover or what we conclude. The Tuesday letter, and the readers who pay for it, keep the lights on.
How we sound
Serious without being solemn, and confident without being certain. The words we hold ourselves to:
- Serious
- Thoughtful
- Incisive
- Humane
- Intellectually confident
- Editorial
- Modern-classic
What we value
- Curiosity
- We start from the question, not the answer, and we are happy to be surprised by what the evidence says.
- Clarity
- Plain words, honest charts, and no more jargon than the idea needs. If it cannot be said simply it is not yet understood.
- Better decisions
- The point of understanding how we think is to choose a little better, at home, at work and in public life.
- Why we do what we do
- Behaviour first. We are less interested in how people should reason than in how they actually do.
The people
- arFounding editor
Founding editor of The Unreasonable Human. Formerly a behavioural economist at the Treasury, and still recovering.
- ap
- moStaff writer
Staff writer covering money, fairness and the strange economics of everyday kindness; previously on the business desk of a national daily.
- pnContributing writer
Writes about defaults, institutions and the quiet ways policy shapes a life; spent a decade inside a government nudge unit.
- tlData contributor
Data journalist and recovering statistician who would rather show you the distribution than tell you the mean.
Contact
Letters, corrections and pitches: hello@theunreasonablehuman.com. We read everything and answer most of it.