'individual self-interest' is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use it whenever you are writing about an individual pursuing their own interests that may or may not coincide with the interests of others. For example, "The director's individual self-interest led to her decision to take the company in a different direction than the board had originally planned."
Instead, there is, she argued, only "I" and my individual self-interest.
So the pursuit of individual self-interest leads to a loss for everyone.
When there's no ownership, the pursuit of individual self-interest can make everyone worse off.
This is another case where individual self-interest militates against an economically efficient collective solution.
For them, pursuit of the common good was all about pursuit of individual self-interest.
Although they collectively are better off if neither cooperates, their individual self-interest dictates cooperation.
Another surprising result is that political scientists and economists have been unable to find much of a link between individuals' self-interest and their position on a range of public opinion questions, or on their voting behavior.
He argued that when a resource is held jointly, it is in individuals' self-interest to deplete it, so people will tend to undermine their collective long-term interest by over-exploiting rather than protecting that asset.
Interestingly, Hampton agrees with Gauthier that contractarianism is right to require any moral or political norms to appeal to individuals self-interest as a limitation on self-sacrifice or exploitation of any individual.
The "tragedy of the commons" is a conceptual economic problem where the benefits of common and open resources are jeopardized by individuals' self-interest to optimize personal gains [ 26].
Individual self interest does not always benefit society, he argues, and draws on a deep pool of research (what he calls "reality-based economics") to support his case.
