Economists are less selfish than the average person

Numerous stereotypes exist about economists. Two are common. The first is that the only thing we think about and study about is money. The second is that economists are more selfish than the average person.

Both stereotypes are wrong. My wife, who is not an economist herself but has been married to one for almost forty-one years, has a great answer to the first statement. When people find out I’m an economist and say, “Oh, he has to study money,” they say, “No, he studies human behavior.”

But I want to focus on the second statement because I think it is the opposite of the truth. My observation is that the average economist is less selfish than the average person, and for good reason: the study of economics causes us to think about consequences beyond the obvious. Moreover, the scientific literature, which some people claim shows that students who learn economics become selfish, does not actually show this.

Here are the first three paragraphs of my latest Hoover article: “Economics is not selfish,” Defining ideasMay 30, 2024.

Later in the piece, I discuss a controversy that broke out a few years ago over an academic work that one of the co-authors falsely claimed showed that economics students are more selfish than other students.

Read the whole thing.