The robot, the party animal and the philosopher: An evolutionary perspective on deliberation and preference

Abstract

This paper examines the evolutionary fitness of a variety of ways of reaching decisions in early hunter-gatherer societies, in order to derive insights about how economists should view modern consumers. It challenges conclusions reached by mainstream economists Robson, Rayo and Becker about why hunter-gatherers needed sensory rewards and about the kinds of preference systems that would have conferred evolutionary fitness. It argues that evolution favours those with a variety of ways of reaching decisions-programmed, deliberative, intuitive and 'go with the flow'-and that the prospect of sensory rewards serves an evolutionary role by diverting people from thinking too much about what they are doing in situations in which deliberation might interfere with survival or reproduction. The evolutionary role of a reluctance or failure to make trade-offs is also considered along with the benefits of developing a relatively fixed identity rather than being 'all things to all men'. © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved.