Altruistically Inclined? The Behavioral Sciences, Evolutionary Theory, and the Origins of Reciprocity. By Alexander J. Field. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001. Pp. xvi, 373. $65.00

Joel Mokyr

The Journal of Economic History, 2003, vol. 63, issue 1, 298-300

Abstract: Alex Field is an eminent economic historian who has made important contributions to the field. In this book he shows the ambition and the erudition to venture into a wider area, and criticize the entire practice of economics and the social sciences in our time. The paradox he raises in this book has been widely discussed in recent years. It is that the standard model of economics starts off with the assumption that the individual is rational and utility maximizing, and thus will behave in certain predictable ways, among them that they will play “defect” in strategic games that have the nature of one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma. Yet in the real world people are nicer and less selfish than the grim neoclassical model predicts. Altruism—acting against one's direct interest—is an important part of economic behavior. The interesting phenomenon, says Field, is not only that we drop anonymously gold coins in a Salvation Army box or serve without pay on boring university committees. The important things are acts of omission: members of human society do not normally commit acts of aggression and treason even when we have a chance to do so and they are demonstrably to our advantage.

Date: 2003
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