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Sunday, October 12, 2008
Jackie Gingrich Cushman :: Townhall.com Columnist
The Irrationality of Rational Theory
by Jackie Gingrich Cushman
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Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?


The second experiment measured the impact of trust in 107 participants.  After viewing the video clip, they were asked to rate how much they trusted the person providing advice regarding the weight estimate.  Those who experienced incidental gratitude were more trusting and receptive to advice than were those in the neutral state, and those who experienced incidental anger were less trusting and receptive than participants in the neutral state.  

In the conclusion, the authors expect that those who make us angry, or trigger anger to be “less trusted and less influential.” The authors expect that those “who are able to generate gratitude (e.g., by causing targets to reflect on their good fortune),” are able to create “more trust and to be more influential."

What does this mean to us?  The theory of rational behavior might be just that, a theory that is not borne out in real life.  As humans with emotions, incidentally or directly caused by the activity and the decision at hand, we might be influenced much more than we think by emotions. 

This might be fine when gratitude for my child’s good manners allows for 5 minutes more playtime outside, but we might want to rethink the irrationality of rational theory. 

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About The Author
Jackie Cushman is a freelance writer who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Her column also runs later in the week in the Northside Neighbor.
 
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(24 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Oct 13, 2008 - 8:47 PM EST
45caliber - If you're a defense attorney
--
...and your client is accused of a non-violent "victemless" crime (a drug offense, tax evasion, BATFE firearms charges, and the like), your voire dire should include a question designed to determine if a venireman knows what the initials "FIJA" stand for.

That's one you definitely want empaneled.





=====
"[Y]ou can help ... to return this country to the rule of law by remembering your 1000-year-old right and duty, when called upon to be a juror, to judge the law, as well as the facts of the case or the instructions of the judge. If it doesn't match your understanding of the Bill of Rights, the law must be discarded."

-- Aaron Zelman, L. Neil Smith; *Hope* (2001)
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Reply # 2
Date: Oct 13, 2008 - 5:08 PM EST
Game Theory


The problem is not "Rational Choice Theory" itself. Rather it's the unscientific method by which come "Rational Choice Theorist," hold classical economic theory priori as truth. Assumptions which when put to the test, fail on empirical grounds.

Humans make rational decision, but as Dan Ariel, points out in Predictably Irrational, humans perceive value, for an example, not as a fixed quantity but rather as a relative quantity.

ie, you might travel five miles to save $15 on a $18 pen, but you wouldn't travel five miles to save $15 on a $1000 suite.

when I look at the last year, and the last few weeks. I don't see irrationality taking hold of markets... I see individuals making rational decision constrained by everyone else's derision.

in other words... what we are seeing in the market is game theory in effect.

Another way of looking at credit markets seeing up is to think of the
Nash equilibrium. Only by getting all the players together, and reaching a mutually beneficial outcome, can you break the deadlock.

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