Loewenstein (1996) is “Out of Control”

George Loewenstein, “Out of Control: Visceral Influences on Behavior [pdf].” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 65: 272-292, March 1996.

• People can make choices that are mistaken, and make them in full knowledge, at the time of choosing, that they are making a mistake. This disjunction between perceived self-interest and behavior is caused by intense visceral factors such as cravings, “drive states” (hunger, thirst, sexual desire), moods and emotions, and pain. 

• While rational choices require that visceral states be taken into account, many types of self-destructive behavior seem to involve an excessive influence of visceral factors on choices. Indeed, some intense visceral factors seem to preclude “decision making” – no one chooses to fall asleep while driving. 

• Sales people, con men, cults: all take advantage of visceral factors. They tend to apply pressure for immediate action – visceral factors fade over time. 

• People under the sway of intense visceral factors tend to narrow their focus. Addicted people narrow their focus to the addictive good; people become more self-centered. 

• Loewenstein’s seven propositions amount to: “visceral factors operating on us in the here and now have a disproportionate impact on our behavior [p. 276].” Alternatively, the same factors, past or future, or experienced by someone else, are underweighted, despite substantial experience with visceral factors.

• Quasi-hyperbolic or other non-exponential discounting approaches have two significant limitations: (1) people seem to have such preferences only with respect to certain kinds of choices; and, (2) time delay is not the only feature of a choice situation that seems to involve impulsivity. Physical proximity and sensory contact, for instance – the smell of cookies! – also play a role. 

• Almost any cue associated with a reward can produce an appetitive response – especially a priming dose. 

• Vividness (such as terrorist attacks) affects decisions. Does vividness alter subjective probabilities, or does it intensify the emotions associated with thinking about the outcome? 

• Though visceral states have an undue influence on behavior, people are not fully sophisticated about the extent to which their own future (or past!) behavior will respond to visceral forces. A recovering alcoholic might underestimate how difficult abstaining will be if he goes to the office Christmas party. 

• Rational addiction is wrong because it doesn’t fit the facts – e.g., addicts should buy in bulk to save money on their long term habit; further, the “rapid downward hedonic spiral” is “difficult to understand” as a rational choice. So why do people become addicted? In part, because they underestimate the influence of craving and withdrawal on their future behavior. They wrongly believe they will be able to quit. 

• People blame themselves for a lack of past effort because they discount the effect of fatigue. 

• The visceral model suggests a multiple-selves interpretation. The farsighted self is the one relatively immune from visceral factors, and is much more consistent over time than the selves who are influenced by fluctuating visceral factors.