Customer Reviews

The Matching Law: Papers in Psychology and Economics

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This book has several chapters which are fairly easy to read for those persons who do not enjoy "math"; the concepts in this book will be stimulating to those who wish to undertand why Human behavior is oftentimes so "unreasonable" and beyond belief. For example, how can one explain human behavior when the same person buys a pack of cigarretes and a cure for smoking at the same time? Why is it that a bright physician will go down the primrose path and become an alcoholic? The answer to both of these puzzles lies in the concepts of "meliorazion" and the "matching law", which in a nutschell can be defined as the proportionate allocation of behaviors to different reinforcement rates. Example:In a given space of time(ie,one afternoon)Mary will spend about 30% of her time with Ann, 50% of her time with Tom and 20% of her time with Robin. All this is done "automatically" and without conscious effort from Mary's part. The matching law has "matched" her behavior proportionately to the amount of reinforcement that Mary gets from all these people. Melioration is the concept that guides one's behavior to what is reinforcing. Behaviors distributed across time(ie,learning of tennis, becoming a drunk, a loafer,ect)tend to stabilize around the matching law which is guided by "melioration" and not "rationality". The book and its concept may revolutionize Economic consumer behavior and psychology's understanding of behavior. The matching law has been substantiated by several hundred experiments with animals and human subjects. Dr.Herrnstein's untimely death was very unfortunate.

This book is both an introduction to the Matching Law (which I find fascinating and intriguing) and an update on the advances up to the date of the book. It mixes experimental data with discussions about the extention of these findings. The experimental data part can be a little boring for those not used to reading this type of material, but most people will find the discussions part interesting. I would strongly advise it to anyone interested in getting an overview on the subject.