IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceco/v101y2022ics2214804322001173.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The self-control vs. self-indulgence dilemma: A culturomic analysis of 20th century trends

Author

Listed:
  • Acerbi, Alberto
  • Sacco, Pier Luigi

Abstract

Within the conceptual framework of the Tightness-Looseness paradigm, we study the dynamics of the social salience of self-control (tight) vs-self-indulgence (loose) orientations across the 20th century on the basis of the English Google Books corpus, by means of the construction of specific lexica of which we track their relative frequencies. We find that whereas the trend of self-control displays a steady increase throughout, that of self-indulgence is U-shaped, so that following a decline along the most part of the century, starting from the late 70s-early 80s we observe a reversal of the trend that signals an increasing salience of self-indulgence. Such result seems to reflect the consumerist turn that has characterized the post-industrial cycle from the 80s onwards. The coexistence of growing trends for mutually antagonizing orientations calls for further analysis of their social interplay. We also perform a parallel analysis on semantically related lexica that confirms the robustness of our findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Acerbi, Alberto & Sacco, Pier Luigi, 2022. "The self-control vs. self-indulgence dilemma: A culturomic analysis of 20th century trends," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:101:y:2022:i:c:s2214804322001173
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2022.101946
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214804322001173
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socec.2022.101946?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jesse R Harrington & Pawel Boski & Michele J Gelfand, 2015. "Culture and National Well-Being: Should Societies Emphasize Freedom or Constraint?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, June.
    2. Windsor, Duane, 2009. "Tightening corporate governance," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 306-316, September.
    3. John P. Watkins, 2015. "Economic Waste and Social Provisioning: Veblen and Keynes on the Wealth Effect," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(2), pages 441-448, April.
    4. Rey-Ares, Lucía & Fernández-López, Sara & Castro-González, Sandra & Rodeiro-Pazos, David, 2021. "Does self-control constitute a driver of millennials’ financial behaviors and attitudes?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    5. Anne Joosten & Marius van Dijke & Alain Van Hiel & David De Cremer, 2015. "Out of Control!? How Loss of Self-Control Influences Prosocial Behavior: The Role of Power and Moral Values," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(5), pages 1-20, May.
    6. Ma, Hengyun & Rae, Allan N. & Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott, 2004. "Chinese animal product consumption in the 1990s," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 48(4), pages 1-22.
    7. Horváth, Csilla & Büttner, Oliver B. & Belei, Nina & Adıgüzel, Feray, 2015. "Balancing the balance: Self-control mechanisms and compulsive buying," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 120-132.
    8. Stefano Bartolini & Luigi Bonatti & Francesco Sarracino, 2014. "The Great Recession and the bulimia of US consumers: deep causes and possible ways out," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(5), pages 1015-1042.
    9. Joshua Conrad Jackson & Michele Gelfand & Soham De & Amber Fox, 2019. "Publisher Correction: The loosening of American culture over 200 years is associated with a creativity–order trade-off," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 3(7), pages 759-759, July.
    10. Zou, Heng-fu, 1994. "'The spirit of capitalism' and long-run growth," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 279-293, July.
    11. Doris Sommer & Pier Luigi Sacco, 2019. "Optimism of the Will. Antonio Gramsci Takes in Max Weber," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-31, January.
    12. Ian W. Eisenberg & Patrick G. Bissett & A. Zeynep Enkavi & Jamie Li & David P. MacKinnon & Lisa A. Marsch & Russell A. Poldrack, 2019. "Uncovering the structure of self-regulation through data-driven ontology discovery," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    13. Paul Thompson & Diane van den Broek, 2010. "Managerial control and workplace regimes: an introduction," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 24(3), pages 1-12, September.
    14. anonymous, 2004. "Consumer debt: how much is too much?," EconSouth, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 6(Q1).
    15. Joshua J. Clarkson & Chris Janiszewski & Melissa D. Cinelli, 2013. "The Desire for Consumption Knowledge," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(6), pages 1313-1329.
    16. Roth, Steffen & Schwede, Peter & Valentinov, Vladislav & Žažar, Krešimir & Kaivo-oja, Jari, 2019. "Big data insights into social macro trends (1800–2000): A replication study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    17. Achtziger, Anja & Alós-Ferrer, Carlos & Wagner, Alexander K., 2018. "Social preferences and self-control," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 161-166.
    18. Joshua Conrad Jackson & Michele Gelfand & Soham De & Amber Fox, 2019. "The loosening of American culture over 200 years is associated with a creativity–order trade-off," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 3(3), pages 244-250, March.
    19. Roth, Steffen & Clark, Carlton & Trofimov, Nikolay & Mkrtichyan, Artur & Heidingsfelder, Markus & Appignanesi, Laura & Pérez-Valls, Miguel & Berkel, Jan & Kaivo-oja, Jari, 2017. "Futures of a distributed memory. A global brain wave measurement (1800–2000)," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 307-323.
    20. Mandel, Naomi & Scott, Maura L. & Kim, Sunghoon & Sinha, Rajiv K., 2017. "Strategies for improving self-control among naïve, sophisticated, and time-consistent consumers," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 109-125.
    21. Ugur, Zeynep B., 2021. "Does Self-Control Foster Generosity? Evidence from Ego Depleted Children," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    22. Rohan Dutta & David K. Levine & Nicholas W. Papageorge & Lemin Wu, 2018. "Entertaining Malthus: Bread, Circuses, And Economic Growth," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(1), pages 358-380, January.
    23. Rishtee K Batra & Tanuka Ghoshal & Gita JoharEditor & Derek RuckerAssociate Editor, 2017. "Fill Up Your Senses: A Theory of Self-Worth Restoration through High-Intensity Sensory Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(4), pages 916-938.
    24. R Alexander Bentley & Alberto Acerbi & Paul Ormerod & Vasileios Lampos, 2014. "Books Average Previous Decade of Economic Misery," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-7, January.
    25. Brand, Charlotte Olivia & Acerbi, Alberto & Mesoudi, Alex, 2019. "Cultural evolution of emotional expression in 50 years of song lyrics," SocArXiv 3j6wx, Center for Open Science.
    26. Alberto Acerbi & Vasileios Lampos & Philip Garnett & R Alexander Bentley, 2013. "The Expression of Emotions in 20th Century Books," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-6, March.
    27. Martinsson, Peter & Myrseth, Kristian Ove R. & Wollbrant, Conny, 2014. "Social dilemmas: When self-control benefits cooperation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 213-236.
    28. Gómez-Miñambres, Joaquín & Schniter, Eric, 2017. "Emotional calibration of self-control," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 110-118.
    29. Sarah Smith, 2004. "Can the retirement consumption puzzle be solved?," IFS Working Papers W04/07, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Acerbi, Alberto & Sacco, Pier Luigi, 2021. "The self-control vs. self-indulgence dilemma: A culturomic analysis of 20th century trends," OSF Preprints xgqt5, Center for Open Science.
    2. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Kong, Nancy & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah, 2023. "The stability of self-control in a population-representative study," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Shuhei Kitamura, 2023. "Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Mind and Culture: Evidence from Visual Art," Papers 2307.15540, arXiv.org.
    4. Alós-Ferrer, Carlos & Garagnani, Michele, 2020. "The cognitive foundations of cooperation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 71-85.
    5. Liang Xu & Min Xu & Zehua Jiang & Xin Wen & Yishan Liu & Zaoyi Sun & Hongting Li & Xiuying Qian, 2023. "How have music emotions been described in Google books? Historical trends and corpus differences," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Martin G. Kocher & Peter Martinsson & Kristian Ove R. Myrseth & Conny E. Wollbrant, 2017. "Strong, bold, and kind: self-control and cooperation in social dilemmas," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(1), pages 44-69, March.
    7. Yunsong Chen & Fei Yan & Yi Zhang, 2017. "Local name, global fame: The international visibility of Chinese cities in modern times," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(11), pages 2652-2668, August.
    8. Ludovic Rheault & Kaspar Beelen & Christopher Cochrane & Graeme Hirst, 2016. "Measuring Emotion in Parliamentary Debates with Automated Textual Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(12), pages 1-18, December.
    9. Lucyna Witek & Wiesława Kuźniar, 2020. "Green Purchase Behavior: The Effectiveness of Sociodemographic Variables for Explaining Green Purchases in Emerging Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.
    10. Céline Flipo & Pier Vittorio Mannucci & Kevyn Yong, 2023. "The impact of cultural tightness on the relationship between structural holes, tie strength, and creativity," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(2), pages 332-343, March.
    11. Roth, Steffen, 2021. "The great reset of management and organization theory. A European perspective," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 538-544.
    12. Damian Ruck & R. Alexander Bentley & Alberto Acerbi & Philip Garnett & Daniel J. Hruschka, 2017. "Role Of Neutral Evolution In Word Turnover During Centuries Of English Word Popularity," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(06n07), pages 1-16, September.
    13. Andrée Marie López-Fernández, 2020. "Price sensitivity versus ethical consumption: a study of Millennial utilitarian consumer behavior," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(2), pages 57-68, June.
    14. Ilknur Ayar & Ahmet Gürbüz, 2021. "Sustainable Consumption Intentions of Consumers in Turkey: A Research Within the Theory of Planned Behavior," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(3), pages 21582440211, September.
    15. Luke Barber & Michael Jetter & Tim Krieger, 2023. "Foreshadowing Mars: Religiosity and Pre-Enlightenment Warfare," CESifo Working Paper Series 10806, CESifo.
    16. Roth, Steffen, 2021. "The Great Reset. Restratification for lives, livelihoods, and the planet," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    17. Friehe, Tim & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah, 2017. "Self-control and crime revisited: Disentangling the effect of self-control on risk taking and antisocial behavior," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 23-32.
    18. Ranjitha G.P. & Anandakuttan B. Unnithan, 2018. "Self and Identity of Being an Ideal Woman: An Exploratory Qualitative Study," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 7(1), pages 33-44, January.
    19. Giulia Andrighetto & Aron Szekely & Andrea Guido & Michele Gelfand & Jered Abernathy & Gizem Arikan & Zeynep Aycan & Shweta Bankar & Davide Barrera & Dana Basnight-Brown & Anabel Belaus & Elizaveta Be, 2024. "Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    20. Ho Fai Chan & Jordan Moon & David A. Savage & Ahmed Skali & Benno Torgler & Stephen Whyte, 2020. "Can Psychological Traits Explain Mobility Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2020-08, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Self-control; Self-indulgence; Tightness-Looseness; Culturomics; Consumerism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;
    • C89 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Other
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:101:y:2022:i:c:s2214804322001173. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620175 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.