Suckers, punters, pathbreakers: when homo oeconomicus is selflessly selfish

Rational choice presupposes that people do what they like better than any available alternative. However, modern choice theory, as represented in neoclassical economics, is too smooth and slippery to be very useful. The resulting frustration has two consequences. One is more or less unconscious backsliding into old-fashioned utility theory. We know more than revealed preference tells us; we know what people like, therefore we can predict their choices before knowing what they choose. The second consequence of the apparently barren elegance of modern choice theory is repudiation of the backsliding involved in the first. The somewhat outdated utility theory if the latter points almost inevitably to a homo oeconomicus who is opportunistic, self-interested, selfish. Adapted from the source document.