Self-Interest and Personal Responsibility Redux

Although self-interest is recognized as a powerful force underlying the behavior of animals and humankind, its ubiquity and influence on performance in and adjustment to all aspects of life are frequently underestimated and discredited because self-interest is, mistakenly, equated with mean-spirited selfishness and viewed as an inhibitor of the commonweal. In this article several positive and beneficial consequences of self-interest are presented, along with the proposition that personal responsibility, in the service of self-interest, is an effective tool for enhancing personal well-being and, hence, for contributing to the public good. Illustrations of the salutary outcomes of self-interest are drawn from psychology and from economics but are doubtless evident in the behavior of organisms observed from other scientific and disciplinary perspectives.