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Drugs' rapid payoffs distort evaluation of their instrumental uses1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2011

George Ainslie
George Ainslie
Affiliation:
Department of Commerce, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa; 151 Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Coatesville, PA 19320. george.ainslie@va.govpicoeconomics.org
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Abstract

Science has needed a dispassionate valuation of psychoactive drugs, but a motivational analysis should be conducted with respect to long-term reward rather than reproductive fitness. Because of hyperbolic overvaluation of short-term rewards, an individual's valuation depends on the time she forms it and the times she will revisit it, sometimes making her best long-term interest lie in total abstinence.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 34 , Issue 6 , December 2011 , pp. 311 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

1.

This commentary is the result of work supported with resources and the use of facilities at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Coatesville, PA. It is considered a work of the U.S. government and as such is not subject to copyright within the United States.

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