Ordinaries 13: apparent spite & apparent altruism

Neoclassical economics assumes that people care only about themselves and, consequently, argues that people will not incur unrepaid costs to harm or help other people. In contrast, behavioral economics documents that people sometimes incur costs to hurt other people (‘apparent spite’) and in other situations incur costs to help others (‘apparent altruism’). Biology argues that, in ancestral settings, such costly acts towards others were adaptive, and arose by natural selection because of benefits redounding to the selfish genes responsible for the behaviors. In evolutionarily novel settings such as cities, however, people will often incur costs that are not repaid. Ordinary: “With no special or distinctive features; normal. Not interesting or exceptional; commonplace.” -Oxford English dictionary.