Document Type

Post-Print

Publication Date

2-2011

Abstract

Going from personal to impersonal exchange seems to be a relevant feature that allows humans to develop complex societies and grow prosperous. Adam Smith's idea of moral imagination, embodied in the impartial spectator and achieved through sympathy, may integrate and complement today's evolutionary biology and experimental economic explanations, providing the missing key as to how we generate and internalize those rules of conduct that promote fair and cooperative behaviors.

DOI

10.1016/j.jebo.2011.01.009

Publisher

Elsevier

Publication Information

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

Included in

Economics Commons

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