Behavioral economics research in some respects has more in common with psychology research than other areas of economics. It is also associated with a particular ideological bent that seeks to undermine the traditional assumption in economics that people can be approximated as rational actors. While there is value in recognizing where that assumption can break down, behavioral economics is often used to justify policies or interventions that traditional economics would not recommend on the basis that people can't be trusted to act in their own best interests so their preferences should be ignored or overridden by benevolent experts who somehow are miraculously immune from the same failures of rationality that the rest of us proles are prone to.