Out of Control: Visceral Influences on Behavior

Understanding discrepancies between behavior and perceived self-interest has been one of the major, but largely untackled, theoretical challenges confronting decision theory from its infancy to the present. People often act against their self-interest in full knowledge that they are doing so; they experience a feeling of being ‘‘out of control.’’

This paper attributes this phenomenon to the operation of 'visceral factors', which include drive states such as hunger, thirst and sexual desire, moods and emotions, physical pain, and craving for a drug one is addicted to.