Experiences, Choice and Well-Being: An Economics of Psychological Energy

David Axelrod

No 1AAD, Proceedings of the 12th International RAIS Conference, April 3-4, 2019 from Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies

Abstract: This paper proposes an economic model of psychological energy used toward the production of experiences. A review of ideas at the nexus of economics and psychology, and how they lead to the thesis of this paper, is presented. A simple mathematical economic model is developed, with two main uses of psychological energy toward well-being. These are the generation of impressions (inward experiences that are sense-like) and expression (outward experiences that are action-like). Choosing is understood as investing energy to change the probabilities of an outcome. The model optimizes energy use between intensity of impressions and capacity for expression. For a fixed energy level, as experiential intensity increases resources are substituted out of decision making and implementation, leading to choices of lower utility. If the material losses are substantial during an experience, the share of psychological energy used to modify impressions will increase, and away from influencing seemingly random external outcomes. Over multiple periods, this generates a feedback loop where the person feels increasingly disempowered, and thus less concerned about making better choices. This feedback loop can be stopped by an external entity providing sufficient resources for the person to experience greater expression.

Keywords: Impression; Expression; Internal Environment; Poverty Trap (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2019-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Proceedings of the 12th International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities, on April 3-4, 2019, pages 1-10

Downloads: (external link)
http://rais.education/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/1AAD.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:smo:cpaper:1aad

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Proceedings of the 12th International RAIS Conference, April 3-4, 2019 from Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Eduard David ().