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- Jon Elster.
- Chaire de Rationalité et Sciences Sociales, Collège de France, France. jon.elster@college-de-france.fr
- Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 2010 Jan 27; 365 (1538): 221-6.
AbstractRational-choice theory tries to explain behaviour on the assumption that individuals optimize. Some forms of irrational behaviour can be explained by assuming that the individual is subject to hedonic, pleasure-seeking mechanisms, such as wishful thinking or adaptive preference formation. In this paper, I draw attention to psychic mechanisms, originating in the individual, which make her worse off. I first consider the ideas of counterwishful thinking and of counteradaptive preference formation and then, drawing heavily on Proust, the self-poisoning of the mind that occurs through the operation of amour-propre.
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