Addiction and cue-triggered decision processes

Addiction and cue-triggered decision processes: Bernheim, D. R., Rangel, A. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 28-58, American Economic Review, 1558-1590. December (2004).

Abstract

We propose a model of addiction based on three premises: (i) use among addicts is frequently a mistake; (ii) experience sensitizes an individual to environmental cues that trigger mistaken usage; (iii) addicts understand and manage their susceptibilities. We argue that these premises find support in evidence from psychology, neuroscience, and clinical practice. The model is tractable and generates a plausible mapping between behavior and the characteristics of the user, substance, and environment. It accounts for a number of important patterns associated with addiction, gives rise to a clear welfare standard, and has novel implications for policy.

Responses

	Date"Date" is a type and predefined property provided by Semantic MediaWiki to represent date values.	Author	Lead-in
Will you take 'neuro' with that?	16 July 2006	J. E. R. Staddon	Neuroeconomics is an interesting idea that has an epistemological worm at its core... but there is no guarantee at all that the optimizing process corresponds to "explicit optimization" in which courses of action are well-defined...