Behavioral Consistency in Economics and Sociology: Thomas Schelling and Social Interactionists on Commitment, 1956–69

Abstract

The concept of commitment has achieved a significant presence across US postwar social science, enjoying increased visibility from the mid-1950s. Economists insist that commitment is the result of a decision to bind oneself to a line of action; they use the concept to express the centrality of individual agency even when it comes to renouncing alternatives. Sociologists see it more as a consequence of one's decision being subjected to social-structural forces. They resort to the concept to show that engagement in a consistent line of action stems from decisions that are inevitably embedded. These differences notwithstanding, economists and sociologists converged on a definition of commitment as the closing off of particular courses of action and the maintenance of consistent behavior over time, intentionally or unintentionally. As they conceptualized commitment, Thomas Schelling, Howard Becker, Erving Goffman and Jessie Bernard incorporated extradisciplinary insights and transformed them to suit their own disciplinary framework. In so doing, they tilted the existing balance between personal agency and social structure, as found in economics and sociology, and helped create a form of knowledge that contributes to a more general understanding of social interactions.