Homo economicus

Meaning

Proper Noun

• A human being regarded as a rational and narrowly self-interested actor capable of making judgments in order to attain its own particular goals.

Related

Similar words

• economic human
• economic man

Origin

• Pseudo-taxonomic name; compare Homo sapiens. The earlier term "Economic Man" was used for the first time in the late nineteenth century by critics of John Stuart Mill's work on political economy.