What does this research mean for the field?

The fundamental unit of economics is the 'grounded individual' (a bonded pair), whose cognitive biases are not fixed constraints but rather symptoms of physiological depletion and institutional feedback loops. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.CONTRADICTORY. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.ESTABLISHES_NEW_DIRECTION.

What question did this study set out to answer?

Formulate a biological, relational, and institutional model of the grounded individual to replace the rational actor of classical economics and the fixed biases of behavioral economics.

September 14, 2026Open Access

The True Economic Atom: The Grounded Individual

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Authors

AAAmmanuel Santa AnnaProsperity Now

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Implication

Theoretical analysis uncovers physiological and relational mechanisms underlying cognitive biases in economic agents, indicating that the true fundamental economic atom is a bonded pair.

Key Points

Formulate a biological, relational, and institutional model of the grounded individual to replace the rational actor of classical economics and the fixed biases of behavioral economics.
Synthesized neurobiological pathways (including cholinergic modulation and limbic regulation) with psychological and sociological frameworks across forty foundational sources.
Modeled an institutional feedback loop linking metabolic and cognitive depletion, scarcity mindsets, contingent self-worth, and organizational structures.
Attributed behavioral economic anomalies directly to neurobiology, linking loss aversion to unmodulated amygdalar signaling and hyperbolic discounting to prefrontal resolution failure.
Identified limbic co-regulation across a bonded pair, rather than an isolated individual, as the minimal functional unit capable of managing regulatory load.
Demonstrated that scarcity cognition enforces contingent self-worth, creating self-fulfilling institutions that formalize defensive self-interest as rational behavior.

Cite This Study

Ammanuel Santa Anna (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6aa7dfc60926e14a848b3eab https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22732192

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Implication

Theoretical analysis uncovers physiological and relational mechanisms underlying cognitive biases in economic agents, indicating that the true fundamental economic atom is a bonded pair.

The True Economic Atom: The Grounded Individual

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

The True Economic Atom: The Grounded Individual

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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