Time-shifted rationality: The evolution of cognitive biases

The article analyzes the phenomenon of "time-shifted rationality," suggesting that contemporary cognitive biases are actually remnants of evolutionary adaptations. Mechanisms that ensured survival in the ancient world—such as fast heuristics or loss aversion—become dysfunctional within a modern institutional environment. The author illustrates this using the example of the endowment effect, which is irrational from an economic perspective but, from an evolutionary standpoint, constituted a resource protection strategy in a world devoid of legal guarantees. The text points to the discrepancy between the "old brain" and the new ecology of stimuli, which is crucial for understanding human behavior in the economy and designing modern management systems and artificial intelligence.