What is behavioral economics?

This paper is concerned with defining the characteristics of behavioral economics (BE), identifying the different strands of BE, and carefully comparing BE to mainstream economics (ME). The job of comparison is first to identify the key dimensions (related to its approach to science) along which BE, and its different strands, differs from ME, and second to use these dimensions to illustrate the differences. The dimensions selected for this use are: (1) narrowness, (2) rigidity, (3) intolerance, (4) mechanicalness, (5) separateness, and (6) individualism. After using these dimensions to characterize ME, they are used to characterize BE's strands.