George Ainslie

Professional Life
George W. Ainslie currently presides as the Chief of Psychiatrist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Coatesville, Pennsylvania and is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Temple University Medical School.

Contribution to Psychology
George W. Ainslie is the founder of Picoeconomics, a term that Ainslie used to describe a person’s preference of choosing instant gratification versus delaying gratification for a future outcome. With the supervision of Howard Rachlin and through various experiments , Ainslie discovered that if given a choice between an instant payoff or a delayed reward, people would increasingly be inclined to select the reward that was would present itself sooner. Therefore, Ainslie’s Picoeconomics is based on the operant conditioning theory, a theory that suggests that people have a preference for rewards that are delivered sooner over rewards delivered at a later point in time. Subsequently, Ainslie determined that the further the reward is delayed, the less valuable it becomes, resulting in an increase in preference for an immediate outcome.

Ainslie used his behavioral economist experience to study the behaviors that led to Picoeconomics. Subsequent studies have served to support Ainslie’s theory. Research has been conducted on animals and humans to reveal that preference trends toward a hyperbolic curve as opposed to an exponential one that would present consistent preferences over a specific time horizon.

His research has been compiled and published in various works that integrate evidence from Richard Herrnstein's matching law and Walter Mischel’s theories relative to gratification delay in children. Ainslie has also published research and theoretical works concerning addiction from his experience in addressing the needs of veterans during his time at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Coatesville Pennsylvania, where his is currently the Chief Psychiatrist. Ainslie explores the rationality of preference in economics and his theory of an “internal market.” He examines varying interests and opinions of similar topics. Ainslie further examines the behavioral techniques used and required to control the impulsivity of instant gratification and the internal disturbances this can cause.

Ainslie is currently presiding as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Temple University Medical School and continues to make seminal contributions and provide analysis to further explore his theory of Picoeconomics. His best known works are Breakdown of Will (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and Picoeconomics: The Strategic Interaction of Successive Motivational States within the Person" (Cambridge University Press, 1992).