Recent models of the evolution of preferences have provided profound new insights into the origins of risk attitudes. In most of these models the evolutionary “objective function” is the maximization of the expected number of offspring, or alternatively, the maximization of the...

Among the various sociological theories of gambling, only a handful are based on the ideas of Max Weber, and particularly on his thesis of rationalization. Using a Weberian framework, this study presents a socio-historical analysis of legal gambling in Israel. The analysis reveals that gambling...