Putting willpower into decision theory: the person as a team over time and intrapersonal team reasoning

Abstract

In decision-theory, problems of self-control can be modelled as problems of intrapersonal cooperation, between a series of transient agents who each make choices at particular times.Early agents in the series can try to influence the actions of later agents, but there is no rational way to exert willpower.I show how willpower can be introduced into decision theory by applying the theory of team reasoning, which was originally developed to understand cooperation between individuals in groups and allows that there can be multiple levels of agency, the individual and the team.In the case of intertemporal choice, the levels are the transient agent and the person over time.Intra-personal team reasoning, understood as a psychological process of identifying with the person over time, can generate a plausible theory of rational control if the intertemporal problem is structured as a threshold public goods game.In this framework, willpower is the ability to align one's present self with one's extended interests by identifying with the person over time.I show how intra-personal team reasoning creates a space for resolutions in decision theory and how it resolves a puzzle that exists in accounts that understand willpower as making and then not reconsidering resolutions.

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