Reconciling Emotion and Rational Choice: Negativistic Auto Theft,Consequence Irrelevance,and the Seduction of Destruction

Abstract

Objectives:

We explore negativism in the context of auto theft and examine its broader phenomenological significance for Rational Choice Theory.

Methods:

Data were drawn from qualitative, in-depth interviews with 35 active auto thieves operating out of a large Midwestern U.S. city.

Results:

Negativistic offending is malicious, spiteful, and/or destructive conduct whose purpose is typically more hedonic (i.e., short-term gratification) than instrumental (i.e., resource-generating) or normative (i.e., moralistic). It is made possible by the notion of ownership without responsibility: Offenders controlled a vehicle that was not theirs, promoting consequence irrelevance which in turn unleashed reckless conduct.

Conclusions:

Consequence irrelevance clarifies negativism’s logic and permits linkage between affect-based and rational choice decision-making models.