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Pham, Michel Tuan, “Emotion and Rationality: A Critical Review and Interpretation of Empirical Evidence” . Review of General Psychology, Forthcoming Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=939394
Abstract: The relation between emotion and rationality is assessed by reviewing empirical findings from multiple disciplines. Two types of emotional phenomena are examined — incidental emotional states and integral emotional responses — and three conceptions of rationality are considered — logical, material, and ecological. Emotional states influence reasoning processes, are often misattributed to focal objects, distort beliefs in an assimilative fashion, disrupt self-control when intensely negative but do not necessarily increase risk-taking. Integral emotional responses are often used as proxies for values, and valuations based on these responses exhibit distinct properties: efficiency, consistency, polarization, myopia, scale- insensitivity, and reference-dependence. Emotions seem to promote social and moral behavior. Conjectures about the design features of the affective system that gives rise to these seeming sources of rationality or irrationality are proposed. Therefore, any categorical statement about the overall rationality or irrationality of emotion would be misleading.
Keywords: Emotion, affect, feelings, decision-making, judgment, reason, rationality, psychology
JEL Classifications: A12, A13, C70, D11, D81, D83, D71
Deirdre McCloskey, Arjo Klamer and Stephen Ziliak are writing a textbook on economics with a completely new approach. You can join the conversation at their web site and contribute to this interesting project. To do so visit: http://www.theeconomicconversation.com/
HOLLER, MANFRED J. (2007) ”Adam Smith’s Model of Man and Some of its Consequences”, Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung Working Paper No. 150, Full Text: http://ssrn.com/abstract=964433
ABSTRACT: This papers discusses the relationship of the model of man presented by Adam Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and the assumptions about human behavior which are quintessential for his An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776/77). It is argued that Smith’s observation of a propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another does not in general hold for human behavior. Moreover, there appears to be an inherent conflict with sympathy, the key concept proposed in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, if we interpret it as the source of social evaluation, self-evaluation and individual action. Following Karl Polanyi’s critical comments in The Great Transformation (1944), we will discuss some of the consequences of this incongruence for the philosophical foundations of modern economics and economic policy.
A conference to commemorate the 250th anniversary of The Theory of Moral Sentiments (January 6-8, 2009 Balliol College, Oxford / Organised by the International Adam Smith Society and The Adam Smith Review) Read the rest of this entry »
