The norm of self-interest

The self-interest motive is singularly powerful according to many of the most influential theories of human behavior and the layperson alike. The present paper examines the role that the assumption of self-interest plays in its own confirmation. It is proposed that a norm exists in western cultures that specifies that self-interest both is and ought to be a powerful determinant of behavior. This norm influences people’s actions and opinions as well as the accounts they give for their actions and opinions. In particular, it leads people to act and sound as though they are guided more by self-interest than they are. Consequences of misinterpreting the evidence of self-interest are discussed. Self-Interest With the publication of Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes (1651/1950) enthroned self-interest as the cardinal human motive, a status it enjoys to this day (Schwartz, 1986). The sovereignty of the self-interest motive has not gone unchallenged, of course. Critics have charged that the prescriptive and descriptive power accorded self-interest promotes a misleading and impoverished view of the human agent, one as dangerous as it is demeaning. A more adequate view of human agent, dissenters argue, acknowledges the power of many additional, sometimes dominating motives, such as public spiritedness (Etzioni, 1988