Willpower and personal rules

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bénabou, R; Tirole, J
• 署名单位: Princeton University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/421167
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 848-886
• 关键词: self-control; SMITH; adam; COMMAND

摘要

We develop a theory of internal commitments or personal rules based on self-reputation over one's willpower, which transforms lapses into precedents that undermine future self-restraint. The foundation for this mechanism is the imperfect recall of past motives and feelings, leading people to draw inferences from their past actions. The degree of self-control an individual can achieve is shown to rise with his self-confidence and decrease with prior external constraints. On the negative side, individuals may adopt excessively rigid rules that result in compulsive behaviors such as miserliness, workaholism, or anorexia. We also study the cognitive basis of self-regulation, showing how it is constrained by the extent to which self-monitoring is subject to opportunistic distortions of memory or attribution, and how rules for information processing can themselves be maintained.