Rachlin H
Psychology Department, SUNY, Stony Brook 11794-2500.
J Exp Anal Behav. 1992 May;57(3):407-15. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1992.57-407.
The fundamental law underlying economic demand and exchange is the tendency for value of marginal units to diminish with increasing amounts of a commodity. The present paper demonstrates that this law follows from three still-more-basic psychological assumptions: (a) limited consumption rate, (b) delay discounting, and (c) choice of highest valued alternative. Cases of diminishing marginal value apparently due to pure intensity of reward may plausibly be attributed to the above three factors. The further assumption that maximum consumption rate may vary within and across individuals implies that some substances may be unusually addictive and that some individual animals may be unusually susceptible to addiction.
经济需求和交换背后的基本规律是,随着一种商品数量的增加,边际单位的价值趋于递减。本文表明,这一规律源于三个更为基本的心理假设:(a)有限的消费率,(b)延迟折扣,以及(c)选择最高价值的替代方案。明显因奖励强度纯粹而导致边际价值递减的情况,可能合理地归因于上述三个因素。最大消费率可能在个体内部和个体之间有所不同这一进一步假设意味着,某些物质可能具有异常的成瘾性,并且某些个体动物可能对成瘾异常敏感。