Choice behavior researchers (e.g., Bazerman, Loewenstein, & White, 1992) have found that individuals tend to choose a more lucrative but disadvantageously unequal payoff (e.g., self—$600/other—$800) over a less profitable but equal one (e.g., self—$500/ other—$500); greater profit trumps interpersonal social comparison concerns in the choice setting. We suggest, however, that self-categorizatio...

Is homo economicus self-interested? That question might seem as silly as asking whether the Pope is Catholic. Most people, including most economists, would be inclined to say, " Of course. " Indeed the first sentence in the Wikipedia entry for " homo economicus " states that it " is the concept in many economic theories of humans as rational and narrowly self-interested actors. " Economists typ...

People tend to lack the self-control to undergo an unpleasant service that would generate future benefits. This paper derives a tractable quasi-hyperbolic discounting model of that behavioral tendency (for a queueing system in which service time is short relative to the time horizon for its benefits). Planning in advance, people may naively overestimate their self-control. This paper shows how ...

People tend to lack the self control to undergo an unpleasant service that would generate future bene…ts. This paper derives a tractable quasi-hyperbolic discounting model of that behavioral tendency (for queueing systems in which service time is short relative to the time horizon for its bene…ts). Planning in advance, people may naively overestimate their self control. This paper shows how cus...

Despite commonsense appeal, the link between self-interest and happiness remains elusive. One reason why individuals may not feel satisfied with self-interest is that they feel uneasy about sacrificing the needs of others for their own gain. We propose that externally imposing self-interest allows individuals to enjoy self-benefiting outcomes that are untainted by self-reproach for failing to h...

Can people feel worse off as the options they face increase? The present studies suggest that some people--maximizers--can. Study 1 reported a Maximization Scale, which measures individual differences in desire to maximize. Seven samples revealed negative correlations between maximization and happiness, optimism, self-esteem, and life satisfaction, and positive correlations between maximization...

Self-organization and survival are inextricably bound to an agent’s ability to control and anticipate its environment. Here we assess both skills when multiple agents compete for a scarce resource. Drawing on insights from psychology, microsociology and control theory, we examine how different assumptions about the behaviour of an agent’s peers in the anticipation process affect subjective cont...

Social interest is human phenomenon which can be considered as structure of personality in psychology. This descriptive correlation study aimed to investigate self efficacy, social acceptance and locus of control as predictors of social interest. This was correlational study. The sample consisted of 153 boys and 147 girls who were studying at private middle schools. Multistage cluster sampling ...