ABSTRACT
Certainly for a hundred years, and on some readings since the days of Adam Smith, the dramatis personae of mainstream economics have been self-interested and egoistic actors for whom the dual spurs of competition and pleasure-seeking have motivated all behavior. Homo economicus (a.k.a. Rational Economic Man), reared in the Cartesian nursery, nourished by a diet long on atomism and short on empathy, has generally been treated as a rather transparent agent. Some have criticized this one-sided perspective on human behavior by pointing to the likely demise of any society (or community or family) in which self-interest is the only (or even the dominant) affective state (Frank 1988). Interestingly, criticism of Rational Economic Man for being a superficial “stick of a person” has been leveled by practitioners both inside and outside the mainstream. But both of these characterizations miss a great deal.
