In The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, Adam Smith famously argued that
economic behavior was motivated by self-interest. But 17 years earlier in 1759,
Smith had proposed a theory of human behavior that looks anything but self-interested.
In his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith argued that behavior
was determined by the struggle between what Smith termed the “passions” and the
“impartial spectator.” The passions included drives such as hunger and sex, emotions
such as fear and anger, and motivational feeling states such as pain. Smith viewed
behavior as under the direct control of the passions, but believed that people could
override passion-driven behavior by viewing their own behavior from the perspective of
an outsider—the impartial spectator—a “moral hector who, looking over the shoulder
of the economic man, scrutinizes every move he makes” (Grampp, 1948, p. 317)
