Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T03:21:15.903Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)