In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies Author(s): Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd, Samuel Bowles, Colin Camerer, Ernst Fehr, Herbert Gintis, Richard McElreath Source: The American Economic Review, Vol. 91, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Hundred Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 2001), pp. 73-78 Published by: American...

This paper investigates the individual outcomes of irrational thinking, including paranormality and non-scientific thinking. These modes of thinking are identified by factor analysis from a 2008 survey. Income and happiness are used as measures of performance. Empirical results reveal that non-scientific thinking lowers income, whereas paranormality does not affect it. While non-scientific thin...

For more than a century, Homo economicus has exclusively populated the theoretical world of economics. This model of the rationally selfinterested actor has also come to dominate substantial subfields of political science, sociology, law, and philosophy. However, many theorists doubt whether this model can explain most social phenomena unless it is supplemented with more socially sophisticated ...

Is homo economicus self-interested? That question might seem as silly as asking whether the Pope is Catholic. Most people, including most economists, would be inclined to say, " Of course. " Indeed the first sentence in the Wikipedia entry for " homo economicus " states that it " is the concept in many economic theories of humans as rational and narrowly self-interested actors. " Economists typ...