eprintid: 22397 rev_number: 27 eprint_status: archive userid: 1482 importid: 105 dir: disk0/00/02/23/97 datestamp: 2016-09-29 09:42:59 lastmod: 2023-06-01 07:41:09 status_changed: 2023-06-01 07:41:09 type: monograph metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Alger, Ingela creators_name: Weibull, Jörgen W. creators_idrefppn: 234173319 creators_idrefppn: 034181938 title: Morality: evolutionary foundations and policy implications ispublished: pub subjects: subjects_ECO abstract: Since the publication of Adam Smithís Wealth of Nations, it has been customary among economists to presume that economic agents are purely selfinterested. However, research in experimental and behavioral economics has shown that human motivation is more complex and that observed behavior is often better explained by additional motivational factors such as a concern for fairness, social welfare etc. As a complement to that body of work we have carried out theoretical investigations into the evolutionary foundations of human motivation (Alger and Weibull 2013, 2016). We found that natural selection, in starkly simpliÖed but mathematically well-structured environments, favors preferences that combine self-interest with morality. Roughly speaking, the moral component evaluates oneís own action in terms of what would happen, if, hypothetically, this action were adopted by others. Such moral preferences have important implications for economic behavior. They motivate individuals to contribute to public goods, to give fair o§ers when they could get away with cheap o§ers, and to contribute to social institutions and act in environmentally friendly ways even if their individual impact is negligible. date: 2016-08-15 date_type: published publisher: IAST Working Paper official_url: http://tse-fr.eu/pub/31010 faculty: tse divisions: tse language: en has_fulltext: TRUE view_date_year: 2016 full_text_status: public monograph_type: working_paper series: IAST Working Paper volume: 16-48 pages: 27 institution: Université Toulouse Capitole department: Toulouse School of Economics book_title: IAST Working Paper oai_identifier: oai:tse-fr.eu:31010 harvester_local_overwrite: oai_set harvester_local_overwrite: department harvester_local_overwrite: date harvester_local_overwrite: official_url harvester_local_overwrite: faculty harvester_local_overwrite: pages harvester_local_overwrite: institution harvester_local_overwrite: pending harvester_local_overwrite: creators_idrefppn oai_lastmod: 2023-05-26T09:33:56Z oai_set: tse oai_set: ut1c site: ut1 citation: Alger, Ingela and Weibull, Jörgen W. (2016) Morality: evolutionary foundations and policy implications. IAST Working Paper, n. 16-48 document_url: https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/22397/1/IAST_V1/wp/alger_weibull_wb.pdf