ABSTRACT
The analysis of "problematic social situations" is a topic in the study of social institutions. Cooperation would emerge if actors were endowed with preferences such that a cooperative action becomes individually rational. Suitable preference changes may be due to changes in (physical) outcomes, or to a direct modification of actors' preferences, which may correspond to an adoption of a moral point of view or to a recognition of others' interests. This approach must provide an endogenous conceptualization of these processes such that preference changes are not assumed but are derived as a consequence of individual adaptation to situational incentives. Two main problems seem to arise with rational action perspectives on changing preferences as a means of modeling the emergence of morality. One of these involves the neglect of strategic aspects, while the other one is an inadequate treatment of incentives.
