I don’t think scope insensitivity sheds much light on this topic. People’s attitudes toward their own lives exhibits a similar insensitivity. For example, if you convince me that my life could end now, or extend for another 50 years, depending on what I do, I will gladly work very hard and endure many hardships to get the latter result. If you convince me that my life could extend for 500 more years, I will probably not work ten times as hard and endure ten times as much hardship. (Or if I did, I would have to talk myself into it.) And that’s not because I expect life to get boring. And if you convince me that my life could end now or in 5 years, I will probably work much more than 1/10th as hard for the extra 5 as I would for the extra 50.
Motivation doesn’t scale linearly with payoff. That fact does not distinguish selfish from other-regarding motivation.
I don’t think scope insensitivity sheds much light on this topic. People’s attitudes toward their own lives exhibits a similar insensitivity. For example, if you convince me that my life could end now, or extend for another 50 years, depending on what I do, I will gladly work very hard and endure many hardships to get the latter result. If you convince me that my life could extend for 500 more years, I will probably not work ten times as hard and endure ten times as much hardship. (Or if I did, I would have to talk myself into it.) And that’s not because I expect life to get boring. And if you convince me that my life could end now or in 5 years, I will probably work much more than 1/10th as hard for the extra 5 as I would for the extra 50.
Motivation doesn’t scale linearly with payoff. That fact does not distinguish selfish from other-regarding motivation.