{"id":37394,"date":"2011-07-17T10:29:32","date_gmt":"2011-07-17T15:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=37394"},"modified":"2013-11-11T02:14:29","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T07:14:29","slug":"juxtaposing-self-interest-and-the-common-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/07\/17\/juxtaposing-self-interest-and-the-common-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Juxtaposing Self-Interest and the Common Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

An anonymous reader snapped a photo of this ad for Freelancers Insurance Company\u00a0in the NYC subway. \u00a0The ad reads: “Maybe joining a group to buy insurance is communal. \u00a0Maybe it’s rational self-interest. \u00a0Either way, it’s cheaper.” With the phrase “either way,” the ad draws on a common juxtaposition: the idea that putting the group first is equivalent to sacrificing your own interests.<\/p>\n

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Certainly in some cases it’s true that privileging the collective hurts the individual, but this certainly isn’t always true. \u00a0Yet Americans consistently receive the message that it is rational (i.e., maximizes our personal well-being) to put ourselves first. \u00a0A University of Minnesota campaign to encourage students to get the flu shot — “Do it for the herd”<\/a>— is a nice counter-example. \u00a0In some other societies the idea that one should sacrifice the self for others, and even the idea that doing for others is good for you, is a more common cultural theme.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An anonymous reader snapped a photo of this ad for Freelancers Insurance Company\u00a0in the NYC subway. \u00a0The ad reads: “Maybe joining a group to buy insurance is communal. \u00a0Maybe it’s rational self-interest. \u00a0Either way, it’s cheaper.” With the phrase “either way,” the ad draws on a common juxtaposition: the idea that putting the group first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15,37],"class_list":["post-37394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-culture","tag-social-psychology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37394"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58792,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37394\/revisions\/58792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}