Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive
Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive
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DOI：
10.1017/s0140525x06009046
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发表时间：
2006-04
影响因子：
29.3
通讯作者：
S. Lea;P. Webley
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
S. Lea;P. Webley
为什么人们对钱感兴趣？具体地说，是什么生物学基础使得金钱具有非凡的激励和强化力，这似乎是人类独有的？我们确定了两种方式，一种本身没有生物学意义的商品可以成为一种强大的激励因素。第一种情况是，如果它被用作一种工具，通过隐喻的延伸，这通常适用于金钱：它被用作工具，以获得与生物学相关的激励。第二，物质可以是强大的激励因素，因为它们模仿自然激励的作用，但不产生那些激励本能地寻求的健康收益。这一过程的经典例子是精神药物，但我们认为药物概念也可以隐喻地扩展，以提供金钱动机的说明。通过对有关货币的理论和实证文献的回顾，我们得出结论：(i)有许多现象不能用纯粹的货币动机工具理论来解释；（ii）以药物理论补充工具理论，使反常现象得以解释；（三）根据毒品理论，金钱寄生于人类的本能，包括交易（源自互惠利他主义）和客体游戏。
Why are people interested in money? Specifically, what could be the biological basis for the extraordinary incentive and reinforcing power of money, which seems to be unique to the human species? We identify two ways in which a commodity which is of no biological significance in itself can become a strong motivator. The first is if it is used as a tool, and by a metaphorical extension this is often applied to money: it is used instrumentally, in order to obtain biologically relevant incentives. Second, substances can be strong motivators because they imitate the action of natural incentives but do not produce the fitness gains for which those incentives are instinctively sought. The classic examples of this process are psychoactive drugs, but we argue that the drug concept can also be extended metaphorically to provide an account of money motivation. From a review of theoretical and empirical literature about money, we conclude that (i) there are a number of phenomena that cannot be accounted for by a pure Tool Theory of money motivation; (ii) supplementing Tool Theory with a Drug Theory enables the anomalous phenomena to be explained; and (iii) the human instincts that, according to a Drug Theory, money parasitizes include trading (derived from reciprocal altruism) and object play.