From his early years, George Ainslie has been fascinated by the concepts of Time and Choice.  He started out to become a playwright, but at Yale was drawn to Professor Frank Logan’s studies of how people—well, rats, actually—discounted the value of future goals.  He was developing an experiment to show that rats would learn to block their own future temptations when Harvard Medical School intervened.  While he was there a teacher referred him to the Harvard Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, where he proposed his experiment as a follow-up to Richard Herrnstein’s “matching law.” 

George worked with Herrnstein for several years, demonstrating hyperbolic delay discounting—the finding that both humans and non-humans discount the future in a hyperbolic curve-- which became one foundation of the interdisciplinary field now known as “behavioral economics.” (George's work in this area is spelled out in this paper, particularly pp. 690-695.)  In two books and many articles he has explored the many surprising implications of this finding for fields including philosophy, sociology, psychology, law and economics.  He explains the basics in an interview on Julia Galef’s podcast, Rationally Speaking.

He has carried on his work with the invaluable assignment by the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Coatesville (PA) of half his time for research.

George has maintained his interest in drama through acting, directing and producing plays at the Players Club of Swarthmore (PA).  Although the Covid-19 pandemic has temporarily suspended theatrical activities, George’s past productions include Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, Alan Ayckbourne’s Communicating Doors, and Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain, which involve jumps in time between different generations or eras.  George is also an avid student of history, and has written a middle grade time-travel novel.

George has lectured on hyperbolic discounting in numerous locations worldwide, including Oslo, Sardinia and South Africa.  However, he is happiest when spending time with his family.  He is married to Elizabeth Ainslie, a distinguished trial lawyer, and is lucky to have children who have followed each of his interests: Matthew is a librarian and historical geographer at Temple University; Roger is an actor, acting teacher, and certified Lessac method vocal coach at Rowan University; and Eleanor Anderson is a psychiatrist, teacher, and administrator at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.  George and Elizabeth enjoy tent camping, especially in Maine and the Rockies, and other adventures with their children and four grandchildren.

 

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