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Hyperbolic discounting lets empathy be a motivated process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2003

George Ainslie
Affiliation:
Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Coatesville, PA 19320 [email protected] http://www.picoeconomics.com
John Monterosso
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 [email protected]

Abstract

The Perception-Action Model (PAM) is a cogent theory of how organisms get information about others' experiences. However, such a stimulus-driven mechanism does not handle well the complex choices that humans face about how to respond to this information. Hyperbolic reward discounting permits a reward-driven mechanism for both how aversive empathic experiences can compete for attention and how pleasurable empathic experiences are constrained.

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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