The Oscars won't be awarded until March, but those who hand out the annual Behavioral Economics Oscars (known as the Becons) are famously impatient, and it is time to announce this year's winners.
Best Actress: In recent years, behavioral economists have become interested in emotions and affect. It is now widely known that human beings use an "affect heuristic" in thinking about activities and risks. Instead of carefully assessing the statistics about (say) nuclear power or genetic modification of food, we tend to ask: How do we feel about it? The answer to that question operates as a mental shortcut, or a heuristic, that informs and sometimes settles our judgments.
Adele Exarchopoulos is the star of "Blue Is the Warmest Color," which is a case study in the affect heuristic. Her character Adele has an immediate and intense affective reaction to Emma (played by Lea Seydoux), and that reaction is (soon) reciprocated. It is enough to sustain a love affair, even though the two characters aren't exactly made for each other. The words "affect heuristic" are far too clunky for Exarchopoulos' clunk-free performance, but perhaps she'll forgive, because she gets to bring home the Becon.