ABSTRACT
Self-interested action fails decisively in favor of other-regarding action in trust games reported and widely replicated in this path-breaking research. Human sociability, as modelled in Adam Smith’s first book, Sentiments, offers explanations and predictions of other-regarding action that outscore those based on the extant Reciprocity and Social Preference theories. In Sentiments, action is founded on common knowledge that all humans are strictly self-interested, enabling us from childhood to learn rule-governed actions that benefit (or avoid hurting) others and to respond by rewarding/punishing beneficial/hurtful actions when (if) they occur. Absent this common knowledge we cannot judge what is beneficial/hurtful. Thereby do we learn self-command in following rules of action that make us good neighbors to each other, enhancing human social betterment. By distinguishing the state of being self-interested, from action in the self-interest, Sentiments brings new social-psychological insights to human cultural interactions.
