The Death of the Economic Man

Tittenbrun, Jacek

doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.11.10

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The Death of the Economic Man

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Abstract:

The paradigm of rational self-interested actor is still ate least implicitly assumed by conventional textbook economics as well as by many other social sciences. This is the case despite its critique on the part of even some economists. However, evidence amassed by other disciplines, such as psychology, including evolutionary psychology, anthropology and sociology unequivocally indicates the model is flawed. The paper, after presenting some historical background to the notion of economic man, reviews assorted topical research leading to the conclusion which is signalled in the title of the paper.

Info:

Periodical:

International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences (Volume 11)

Pages:

10-34

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.11.10

Citation:

J. Tittenbrun, "The Death of the Economic Man", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, Vol. 11, pp. 10-34, 2013

Online since:

September 2013

Authors:

Jacek Tittenbrun

Keywords:

Homo Economicus, Rationality, Self-Interest, Utility Maximisation

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Distribution:

Open Access

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

References:

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Cited By:

[1] G. Kirchgässner, "On self-interest and greed", Journal of Business Economics, Vol. 84, p. 1191, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11573-014-0737-1