Intrapersonal Dilemmas

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Abstract
Intrapersonal dilemmas arise when people face choices between something that is good right now but bad for them in the long run (vice), and something that is not so good now but better in the long run (virtue). This article develops the idea that these dilemmas have many similarities to social dilemmas, in which options that are best for society are not best for the individual who gets to choose them. Intrapersonal dilemmas are like social dilemmas because: (i) hyperbolic discounting means that individuals are divisible into a society of selves with competing interests, with the currently active self wanting vice for him or herself, but virtue for future selves; and (ii) the effect of choosing vice is to impose a cost on future selves, analogous to the social concept of externality. Using concepts from game theory, I model intrapersonal dilemmas as sequential games, in which choices made by one self can influence the utility of later selves, but not that of earlier selves. The analysis is applied to two prototypical intrapersonal dilemmas, addiction and procrastination. The article concludes with a survey of the ways in which intrapersonal dilemmas can be overcome by preventing the current self from making short-sighted choices of vice.

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