A paper by Becker and Murphy (1988) influenced the early economic literature on addiction. They show that consumers of addictive goods are rational, meaning that they consistently maximize utility over time, and that the potential for addiction increases if past consumption increases current consumption. Their model is also able to explain the observed instability of consumption that manifests itself in “cold turkey” withdrawal and binge consumption. They also show that people who discount the future more heavily are more likely to become addicts.