Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:16:11.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Hard domains, biased rationalizations, and unanswered empirical questions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 April 2020

Stephen E. Weinberg
Affiliation:
Department of Public Administration, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY12222. [email protected]://www.albany.edu/rockefeller/faculty/stephen-weinberg
Jonathan M. Weinberg
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721-0027. [email protected]

Abstract

Cushman raises the intriguing possibility that rationalization accesses/constructs intuitions that are not otherwise cognitively available. However, he substantially over-reaches in arguing that rationalization is mostly right on average, based on claims that the process must have emerged adaptively. The adaptiveness of “bounded rationalization” is domain specific and is unlikely to be adaptive in a large number of important applications.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Authors are listed in the order of “Mom always liked you best.”

References

Akerlof, G. & Yellen, J. (1985) A near-rational model of the business cycle, with wage and price inertia. Quarterly Journal of Economics 100(5):823–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bahaddin, B., Weinberg, S., Luna-Reyes, L. & Andersen, D. (2019) Building a bridge to behavioral economics: Countervailing cognitive biases in lifetime saving decisions. System Dynamics Review 35(3):187207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benartzi, S. & Thaler, R. (1995) Myopic loss aversion and the equity premium puzzle. Quarterly Journal of Economics 110(1):7392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benjamin, D. (2018) Errors in probabilistic reasoning and judgment biases. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 25200. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.hesbe.2018.11.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniel, K. & Hirshleifer, D. (2015) Overconfident investors, predictable returns, and excessive trading. Journal of Economic Perspectives 29(4):6188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabin, M. & Schrag, J. (1999) First impressions matter: A model of confirmatory bias. Quarterly Journal of Economics 114(1):3782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shanteau, J. (1992) Competence in experts: The role of task characteristics. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 53:252–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar