Choosing Less over More Money

The Love of Praiseworthiness and the Dread of Blameworthiness in One-Player Games

Authors

  • Nina Serdarevic Norwegian School of Economics, Norway

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v14i2.584

Abstract

Why choose less money over more when no one is watching? A central tenet of economics is that this behaviour can be explained by intrinsic motivation. But what does intrinsic motivation entail? What encourages it? This paper answers these questions through a Smithian lens: moral motivation includes not only a naturally strong love of praise and dread of blame but also a natural, and stronger, love of being worthy of praise and dread of being worthy of blame, even if neither is necessarily given. I rely on quantitative and qualitative data from economic experiments to illustrate this claim. While the current scholarship on Smith has applied his theory to situations in which our actions either evoke reactions from others or have monetary consequences for them, I extend his insights to receiver games (Tjøtta 2019) and dice-rolling games (Fischbacher and Föllmi-Heusi 2013) aimed at eliciting self-regarding concerns, that is, actions affecting the interests of only ourselves. I argue that these games accentuate the strength of the love of praiseworthiness in guiding behaviour, emphasising its immediate reference to others and foundation in intentions along with outcomes.

Author Biography

Nina Serdarevic, Norwegian School of Economics, Norway

Nina Serdarevic is a researcher in behavioural economics and a member of the FAIR Insight Team at the Centre for Applied Research (the Norwegian School of Economics) in Norway. Her research interests lie in the intersection of experimental economics and moral and political philosophy. Currently, her research focuses on the representativeness of elite preferences and views on inequality and redistribution.

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Published

2021-11-28

How to Cite

Serdarevic, N. (2021). Choosing Less over More Money: The Love of Praiseworthiness and the Dread of Blameworthiness in One-Player Games. Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 14(2), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v14i2.584