Rationality

About: Rationality is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 20459 publications have been published within this topic receiving 617787 citations.

Rational Poverty or Poor Rationality? The Take-up of Social Assistance Benefits

Abstract: In several countries social assistance dependence has been increasing since the 1980s. After surveying the theoretical and empirical take-up literature, this study presents estimates of recent rates of non take-up of social assistance benefits. Once methodological shortcomings of prior estimations are corrected, the results show that take-up has fallen recently and thus cannot explain the rising welfare receipt. Following theoretical predictions, the probability that a rational individual takes up social assistance increases with the expected benefit amount and duration, and falls with application cost and stigma. More than half of all households eligible for transfers under the German social assistance program did not claim their benefits.

Resolving Social Dilemmas : Dynamic, Structural, and Intergroup Aspects

Abstract: This book presents an accessible and state-of-the-art survey of current research on social dilemmas. A social dilemma arises when actions that are justifiable in terms of individual rationality (e.g. over-harvesting resources, or using private instead of public transportation) threaten the common good and in the long run the individual’s own self-interest as well. The study of social dilemmas has important links with many areas in psychology, as well as with cognate disciplines such as risk analysis, environmental science, political science, and economics. Accordingly, the book should appeal not only to psychologists but also to a wider audience of scholars and researchers. Contributors include both established authorities and recent innovators, and the organization and contents of the book reflect the most recent trends in this exciting area. Increased attention is given to modeling dynamics and processes in social dilemmas, and greater emphasis placed on exploring structural solutions to dilemmas. New findings and theoretical developments regarding group and inter-group processes are highlighted and a move is made away from a heavy reliance on laboratory experiments and game theory to field studies and real-world applications. A scholarly prospective chapter at the beginning and an integrative concluding chapter provide useful overviews of the area and the contributions to the book.

The interplay of moral norms and instrumental incentives in crime causation

Abstract: Rational choice theories (RCTs) of crime assume actors behave in an instrumental, outcome-oriented way. Accordingly, individuals should weight the costs and benefits of criminal acts with subjective probabilities that these outcomes will occur. Previous studies either do not directly test this central hypothesis or else yield inconsistent results. We show that a meaningful test can be conducted only if a broader view is adopted that takes into account the interplay of moral norms and instrumental incentives. Such a view can be derived from the Model of Frame Selection (Kroneberg, 2005) and the Situational Action Theory of Crime Causation (Wikstrom, 2004). Based on these theories, we analyze the willingness to engage in shoplifting and tax fraud in a sample of 2,130 adults from Dresden, Germany. In line with our theoretical expectations, we find that only respondents who do not feel bound by moral norms show the kind of instrumental rationality assumed in RCTs of crime. Where norms have been strongly internalized, and in the absence of neutralizations, instrumental incentives are irrelevant.

What to Do When Stakeholders Matter: The Case of Problem Formulation for the African American Men Project of Hennepin County, Minnesota

Abstract: We propose a series of stakeholder analyses designed to help organizations-especially governments-think and act strategically during the process of problem formulation in order to advance the common good Specifically, we argue that at least five sets of analyses are necessary, including the creation of (1) a power versus interest grid; (2) a stakeholder influence diagram; (3) bases of power-directions of interest diagrams; (4) a map for finding the common good and structuring a winning argument; and (5) diagrams indicating how to tap individual stakeholder interests to pursue the common good What the analyses do is help to transform a seemingly "wicked problem"-for example, how to produce better outcomes for African American men aged 18-30into something more tractable, and therefore amenable to collective action In other words, stakeholder analysis can be used to link political rationality with technical rationality so that support can be mobilized for substantive progress

A Note on Rationalizability and Restrictions on Belief

Abstract: Rationalizability is a widely accepted solution concept in the study of strategic form game with complete information and is fully characterized in terms of assumptions on the rationality of the players and common certainty of rationality. Battigalli and Siniscalchi extend rationalizability and derive the solution concept called Δ-rationalizability. Their analysis is based on the following assumptions: (a) players are rational; (b) their first-order beliefs satisfy some restrictions; and (c) there is common belief of (a) and (b). In this note I focus on games with complete information and I characterize Δ-rationalizability with a new notion of iterative dominance which is able to capture the additional hypothesis on players' beliefs.