Human nature as a factor in economics

At a glance, theories of consumer behavior seem to be very deeply related to the basic human instinct. For example, consumers tend to allocate their limited budgets and income to purchases of goods and services in a way that their total utility (satisfaction) is maximized. In most cases, as a person increases consumption of a product - while keeping consumption of other products constant - there is a decline in the marginal utility that person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product. How about in media goods? For ‘habit forming’ that may be one of human nature, Hoskins et al. argue that “consumption of cultural goods can be habit forming in the sense that present consumption not only provides utility during this period but changes tastes through the accumulation of knowledge and appreciation for the product,” which “provides one explanation for U.S. dominance of the movie industry.

Human nature can be regarded as ways of feeling, thinking and acting that human beings have intrinsically. It is true that there have been fundamental questions, especially in philosophy, about such as what the characteristics of human nature are and what causes them, which are like bases of several different approaches to ethical theories such as deontology and consequentialism. For example, what is human nature between rationality and irrationality and which one has more influence on economy? (Human Nature: The X Factor in Economic Theory) Nevertheless, as mentioned above, economics seems to be clearly based on human nature. If so, what should be considered as the most fundamental and important human nature in “media” economics?