On March 9, 1776, Scottish philosopher Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (stylised simply as The Wealth of Nations) first hit the shelves. A few centuries later, the text, published during the advent of the Industrial Revolution, would boast the status of a foundational doctrine of classical economics. The work is also widely recognised as the first formulation of a comprehensive system of political economy (that is, the relationships among society, politics and the economy). Smith offered a diagnosis of the role of human nature in economic decision-making. Mainstream economics usually predicates its theories on humans as perfectly rational actors (homo economicus, a concept originating in the work of the 19th-century English philosopher John Stuart Mill) seeking only to increase personal profits. The first instance of this detached modelling is often mistakenly attributed to Adam Smith. However, Smith’s work did not discount the importance of psychological conditioning during economic decision-making. Having anchored the market mechanics of his time in practical concepts like human emotion, inherent bias, and …