Rationalizing self-defeating behaviors: Theory and evidence |
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Affiliation: | 1. Frank Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy University of Virginia, United States;2. Frank Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy, University of Virginia and National Bureau of Economic Research, United States |
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Abstract: | Why do individuals engage in self-defeating behaviors like self-harm, addiction, and risky sexual behaviors? Why do they experience the apathy of depression or inaction when trapped by multiple competing problems? We propose a framework for explaining these and other related behaviors based on the insight that individuals can only experience a limited number of latent stimuli to which they are exposed. We conduct an experiment to test this model and find that more than two thirds of the subjects behave consistent with our theoretical framework. |
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Keywords: | Self-defeating behaviors Theory Experiment |
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