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Author

Alina Petrova

Editor-in-chief

Alina Petrova is a Year 12 student preparing to apply to university, and the founder and editor of The Unreasonable Human. She reads across psychology, economics, behavioural science and neuroscience, and writes about the gap between how people are supposed to decide and how they actually do.

Why she started the journal

Writing by Alina Petrova

What 9,000 receipts say about trust

Economists have a model. The rest of us have a Tuesday.

29 Sept 202510 min read

A lone figure climbing a pale stone staircase towards an arched window filled with light

In praise of the slow lane

Most advice assumes a person who never existed.

28 Sept 202513 min read

A lone figure climbing a pale stone staircase towards an arched window filled with light

The trouble with gossip

With Dr. Jonas Kowalski on the surprising economics of memory, and what the data actually shows.

27 Sept 20252 min read

People crossing a sunlit concrete hall

Fairness is a slow bargain

Before we try to fix people, it is worth understanding what they are for.

22 Sept 202510 min read

Illustration of a bare tree over a faint grid, overlaid with rust-red, pale blue and black-spotted circles

A short history of the group chat

Before we try to fix people, it is worth understanding what they are for.

17 Sept 202511 min read

Why we forgive too quickly

With Prof. Owen Marsh on what pride does to markets, marriages and the morning commute, and whether we should try to fix it.

13 Sept 20252 min read

A lone figure climbing a pale stone staircase towards an arched window filled with light

The Careful Ledger

Most advice assumes a person who never existed.

10 Sept 20257 min read

A short history of the shortcut

The mind is built for a different world. It copes remarkably well with this one.

8 Sept 202513 min read

Pale pink blossom on thin branches in front of a raw concrete wall

Envy is a slow form of trust

The cost is obvious, the benefit is diffuse, and so the benefit loses.

4 Sept 202512 min read

People crossing a sunlit concrete hall

The trouble with the honest mistake

With Dr. Miriam Duval on what choice does to markets, marriages and the morning commute, and what a more human economics would do about it.

30 Aug 20252 min read

Illustration of a bare tree over a faint grid, overlaid with rust-red, pale blue and black-spotted circles

Patience is a stubborn way of keeping score

Most advice assumes a person who never existed.

29 Aug 202510 min read

A lone figure climbing a pale stone staircase towards an arched window filled with light

What the last biscuit teaches us about kindness

The cost is obvious, the benefit is diffuse, and so the benefit loses.

21 Aug 202513 min read

Illustration of a bare tree over a faint grid, overlaid with rust-red, pale blue and black-spotted circles