Recently a basic tenet of economics was challenged – that people always behave selfishly. Sam Bowles argues in the June 20 edition of Science that economics sometimes gets it wrong. New experimental evidence demonstrates that people often act against their own personal self-interest in favor of the common good – in predictable, understandable ways. Poorly-designed economic programs fail to take advantage of this intrinsic moral behavior and often undermine it.
For example: In one study, six day care centers imposed a fine on parents who picked up their children late. The effect? The rate of tardiness doubled, and stayed high even when the fine was removed. Parents, it seems, stopped seeing lateness as an imposition on teachers, and instead saw it as something that could be purchased with no moral failing. The institution had missed entirely the altruistic nature of humans.
Another example is a study this year in which women donated blood more frequently when they saw it as an act of charity than when they were paid for it.
Standard economic theory assumes that natural altruism is unaffected by incentives that appeal to self-interest, but that assumption is clearly wrong. As the world becomes more interconnected and the resulting challenges to humanity increase, learning to harness these altruistic impulses becomes even more important, Bowles says. To learn to design institutions and policies to direct the selfish impulses of individuals to public ends, “will be necessary but insufficient,” Bowles contends. “The moral nature of humans must also be recognized, cultivated, and empowered.”
If we are to survive as a specie, we must harness the power of human altruism for the good of ALL species. Our human capacity for rational thought and compassion must win out in the end – or else…
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