The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has issued a policy paper that’s a deep dive on financial panics -- from the psychological perspective.

The paper looks not just at standard economic explanations for panics like the one in 2008 but at the human traits that may drive them. To understand, writers Anat Bracha and Elke U. Weber suggest exploring “animal spirits,” an expression used by John Maynard Keynes in a 1936 book to describe the human emotions that he saw linked to consumer confidence.