rational choice
Sensible option taken
Rational choice is the theory that individuals make decisions by weighing costs and benefits to maximize their own advantage.
The term dominates economics and political science, where it models everything from consumer behavior to voting patterns.
Critics note that people often act on emotion, habit, or incomplete information: Rational choice theory can't explain why anyone votes, since one vote rarely matters.
- cost-benefit analysisSystematic comparison of advantages, disadvantages
- optimizationMaximizing efficiency or performance
- opportunity costSacrificed alternative's worth
- risk aversionPreference for certainty
- prisoner's dilemmaStrategic game theory scenario
expected value · trade-offs · incentives · utility · heuristics · consequentialism · preferences · payoffs · game theory · cost-benefit · zero-sum games · strategy · probabilities · social norms · cooperation · free rider problem · utilitarianism · maximize
- economicssupply and demand, inflation, GDP, GNP, gross domestic product
- strategystrategy, grand strategy, tactics, tactic, tactical
- Decision-Makingpoor judgment, sound judgment, informed decision, hasty decision, weighing options
- decisionsmake a decision, choices, yes, no, alternatives
- choiceschoose, decide, decision, select, selection
- behavioral economicsloss aversion, nudge, anchoring, cognitive bias, heuristics
rational choicegut instinct
Immediate unreasoned knowing
emotional reaction · impulse · gut feeling · intuition · knee-jerk reaction
rational choiceirrationality
Absence of logic
cognitive bias · systematic error · satisficing · behavioral economics · loss aversion
rational choicecompulsion
Irresistible urge to act
addiction · involuntary action · reflex · instinct · coercion