000			01297pab a2200157 454500
008			180718b2003 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100			_aHodgson, Geoffrey M.
245			_aThe hidden persuaders: institutions and individuals in economic theory
260			_c2003
300			_ap.159-75.
362			_aMar
520			_aIn his classic book The Hidden Persuaders, Vance Packard claimed that large corporations manipulated consumers, using advertising techniques. John Kenneth Galbraith and others have repeated a similar view. Against this Gary Becker and George Stigler have claimed that advertising is essentially informative rather than manipulative. In contrast, it is argued here that both of these opposed accounts of human agency neglect the more subtle and undesigned processes by which institutions bear upon and mould individuals. This paper proposes a concept of `reconstitutive downward causation' in which institutions act upon individual habits and dispositions. The mechanisms involved do not fall foul of past critiques of `holism' or methodological collectivism. This argument involves a rehabilitation of the concept of habit in social science, with far-reaching implications. - Reproduced.
650			_aEconomics
773			_aCambridge Journal of Economics
909			_a56069
999			_c56069 _d56069