Why Do We Act against Our Self-Interest?

Tags: Political Theory, Democracy, Philosophy, Rationalism

07/20/2023 Jeffery Marshall

Rational choice theory claims that people in the political realm act in their own self-interest. However, in today’s political climate, many people act against their own interests to avoid being attacked by others.

Original Article: “Why Do We Act against Our Self-Interest?“

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.