Agent Irrationality in Socio-Economic Choices

National economies are complex systems inhabited by a large number of heterogenous agents, whose expectations and behaviors crucially affect system dynamics. A variety of cognitive, cultural, and ideological factors contribute to making decisions, which can be systematically sub-optimal. Here we conduct an economic experiment about the currency change from lev to euro in Bulgaria, and find that consumers have different attitudes to the process, yet all fail to discern small hikes in prices. This effect holds irrespective of age, education, occupation, or income. A neural network analysis identifies typical categories of people's attitudes to the euro adoption.