The Death of the Economic Man

Abstract

The paradigm of rational self-interested actor is still ate least implicitly assumed by conventional textbook economics as well as by many other social sciences. This is the case despite its critique on the part of even some economists. However, evidence amassed by other disciplines, such as psychology, including evolutionary psychology, anthropology and sociology unequivocally indicates the model is flawed. The paper, after presenting some historical background to the notion of economic man, reviews assorted topical research leading to the conclusion which is signalled in the title of the paper.