Books like Explaining Social Behavior
Loved Explaining Social Behavior by Jon Elster? Here are 8 books with the same pull, and why each one fits.
About Explaining Social Behavior →8 books
- 1Micromotives and Macrobehavior
Micromotives and Macrobehavior
Thomas C. SchellingShows how individual choices with simple rules can produce large social patterns that nobody intended.
- 2Dissecting the Social
Dissecting the Social
Peter HedstromDefends explaining social outcomes through the actions and relations of the individuals who produce them.
- 3The Logic of Collective Action
The Logic of Collective Action
Mancur OlsonExplains why rational individuals often fail to act together for a common good, a question central to Elster's discussion of collective action.
- 4Collective Action
Collective Action
Russell HardinApplies game theory and rational choice to the problem of cooperation, with clear attention to when collective outcomes are stable.
- 5The Sicilian Mafia
The Sicilian Mafia
Diego GambettaUses rational choice reasoning to explain a social institution built on trust, showing mechanisms at work in a concrete case.
- 6Social Theory and Social Structure
Social Theory and Social Structure
Robert King MertonA classic work on middle-range theory and unintended consequences, close to Elster's concern with explaining social patterns.
- 7The Passions and the Interests
The Passions and the Interests
Albert Otto HirschmanTraces how ideas about human motivation shaped political and economic thought, a theme that connects to Elster's interest in emotions and interests.
- 8The Poverty of Historicism
The Poverty of Historicism
Karl PopperArgues against grand historical laws and for explanations tied to specific conditions and actors, a debate Elster also engages.
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