Addiction As Consumer Choice

A striking characteristic of addictive behavior is the pursuit of immediate reward at the risk of longer-term detrimental outcomes. It is typically accompanied by the expression of a strong desire to cease from or at least control consumption that has such consequences, followed by lapse, further resolution, relapse, and so on. Understood in this way, addiction includes substance abuse as well as behavioral compulsions like excessive gambling or even uncontrollable shopping. Behavioral economics and neurophysiology provide well-worn paths to understanding this behavior and this book regards them as central components of this quest. However, the specific question it seeks to answer is, What part does cognition – the desires we pursue and the beliefs we have about how to accomplish them – play in explaining addictive behavior? The answer is sought in a methodology that indicates why and where cognitive explanation is necessary, the form it should take, and the outcomes of employing it to understand addiction. It applies the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM) of consumer choice, a tried and tested theory of more routine consumption, ranging from everyday product and brand choice, through credit purchasing and environmental despoliation, to the more extreme aspects of consumption represented by compulsion and addiction. The book will advance debate among behavioral scientists, cognitive psychologists, and other professionals about the nature of economic and social behavior.

A striking characteristic of addictive behavior is the pursuit of immediate reward at the risk of longer-term detrimental outcomes. It is typically accompanied by the expression of a strong desire to cease from or at least control consumption that has such consequences, followed by lapse, further resolution, relapse, and so on. Understood in this way, addiction includes substance abuse as well as behavioral compulsions like excessive gambling or even uncontrollable shopping. Behavioral economics and neurophysiology provide well-worn paths to understanding this behavior and this book regards them as central components of this quest. However, the specific question it seeks to answer is, What part does cognition – the desires we pursue and the beliefs we have about how to accomplish them – play in explaining addictive behavior? The answer is sought in a methodology that indicates why and where cognitive explanation is necessary, the form it should take, and the outcomes of employing it to understand addiction. It applies the Behavioral Perspective Model (BPM) of consumer choice, a tried and tested theory of more routine consumption, ranging from everyday product and brand choice, through credit purchasing and environmental despoliation, to the more extreme aspects of consumption represented by compulsion and addiction. The book will advance debate among behavioral scientists, cognitive psychologists, and other professionals about the nature of economic and social behavior.

Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Economy - Health Economics, grade: 1,0, University of Hohenheim (Institut für Health Care & Public Management), language: English, abstract: It is proposed by Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy that addictive behavior could be usefully integrated in the rational choice framework. According to their theory, consumers are forward-looking in their decision making and calculate present and future consequences of consuming an addictive good. Becker and Murphy even claim that analyzing addictions as a rational choice offers new insights and a better understanding of addiction. Earlier economic models typically explain addictions with irrational or myopic behavior in which individuals ignore or highly discount the future when making their decisions. While the rational addiction model has become a standard tool in the economic analysis of addictive behavior, it has also been subject to much criticism. As shown in this paper, there is much evidence that model’s assumptions are unrealistic. It is argued however that the model’s predictions rather than its assumptions should be rejected based on the empirical evidence. By reviewing empirical studies which tested the Becker Murphy model, this paper seeks to examine to what extent the rational choice approach can be legitimately applied to addictive behavior. The model’s assumptions and implications will be explained. later, the main criticisms about the theory will be discussed. After that, the most relevant studies and their implications will be reviewed.

Addiction: A biopsychosocial perspective provides students with an evidence-based approach to addiction whilst covering a broad range of topics, critical perspectives and influential theories in addiction. With chapters discussing key theories, psychological, biological and societal aspects of addiction, this is a highly accessible and essential resource for students and researchers that: Offers an evidence-based discussion of addiction Addresses the neuroscience and psychology of addiction Provides a critical account of the science and research in addiction Includes chapter overviews and summaries, learning aims and case studies to help students in their study

Choice, Behavioural Economics and Addiction is about the theory, data, and applied implications of choice-based models of substance use and addiction. The distinction between substance use and addiction is important, because many individuals use substances but are not also addicted to them. The behavioural economic perspective has made contributions to the analysis of both of these phenomena and, while the major focus of the book is on theories of addiction, it is necessary also to consider the behavioural economic account of substance use in order to place the theories in their proper context and provide full coverage of the contribution of behavioural economics to this field of study. The book discusses the four major theories of addiction that have been developed in the area of economic science/behavioural economics. They are: . hyperbolic discounting . melioration . relative addiction . rational addiction The main objective of the book is to popularise these ideas among addiction researchers, academics and practitioners. The specific aims are to articulate the shared and distinctive elements of these four theories, to present and discuss the latest empirical work on substance abuse and addiction that is being conducted in this area, and to articulate a range of applied implications of this body of work for clinical, public health and public policy initiatives. The book is based on an invitation-only conference entitled, Choice, Behavioural Economics and Addiction: Theory, Evidence and Applications held at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, March 30 - April 1, 2001. The conference was attended by prominent scientists and scholars, representing a range of disciplines concerned with theories of addiction and their consequences for policy and practice. The papers in the book are based on the papers given at the above conference, together with commentaries by distinguished experts and, in many cases, replies to these comments by the presenters.

Views on addiction are often polarised - either addiction is a matter of choice, or addicts simply can't help themselves. But perhaps addiction falls between the two? This book contains views from philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, and the law exploring this middle ground between free choice and no choice.

Human consumption is multi- faceted and so requires inter- disciplinary exploration in order to explain a spectrum of experiences that is at once particular and allpervading. Consumer choice is a microcosm of human activity which transcends the purview of the archetypal marketing or consumer psychology textbook. Its perspective is that of social science itself. This book understands the study of consumer choice as a paradigm of human socio- economic activity and seeks further understanding of its socio- economic and philosophical bases. The Continuum of Consumer Choice provides a novel view of consumer choice based on the temporal horizon of the consumer, giving rise to a spectrum of consumption styles from the everyday to the extreme. The focus is on explaining this continuum in behavioral, cognitive, and neurophysiological terms, affording the reader a unique perspective on the intellectual basis of consumer psychology and marketing. The reader gains insight into a critical combination of economic psychology, neurophysiology, and philosophy, which contributes to establishing marketing and consumer research as scholarly academic pursuits. The book’s particular focus is the proper place and form of an intentional (cognitive and perceptual) explanation of consumer choice. This is an essential monograph for advanced students in consumer psychology and marketing as well as for researchers in these areas. It is particularly relevant to marketing and consumer theory, providing appreciation of their scholarly foundations. It also appeals to students, lecturers, and researchers in social science generally who are alert to the intellectual potential of consumer psychology and marketing as contributors to a full understanding of human behavior and experience.

In this interdisciplinary work, Kent Dunnington brings the neglected resources of philosophical and theological analysis to bear on the problem of addiction. Drawing on the insights of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, he formulates a compelling alternative to the two dominant models of addiction--addiction as disease and addiction as choice.