The hidden persuaders: institutions and individuals in economic theory
批判了广告操纵论与信息论两种对立观点，提出制度通过“重构性下行因果”塑造个体习惯与倾向，并论证这一机制不落入整体主义陷阱，对社会科学中的习惯概念进行了重新评价。
In 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 article 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.