Normative-Affective Factors: Toward a New Decision-Making Model

Abstract

Intellectual circles in Europe were preoccupied for more than a century shadow boxing with the ghost of Karl Marx, trying again and again to show that history is not dominated by economic or materialistic factors, that ideas matter. Similarly, social scientists and attending intellectuals, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, have been preoccupied — and still are — with extolling, questioning, and attempting to shore up the notion of Rational Man (or homo-economicus.) Indeed, even those who challenge this notion, often define their position in terms of various deviations from the rational model. This is evident in the frequent reference to their concepts as dealing with a residue realm, the “non-rational”, rather than some category that may itself be positively defined. Moreover, non-rationality is often confused with irrationality and tends to carry a negative connotation. “The trouble is that once one starts to talk about rationality, it preempts the way we organize our views of human thought and behavior. We tend to think always in terms of default from a standard...” (Abelson 1976, p. 61).