Interactions Affecting Two People

Abstract

In previous chapters, we examined decision-making in an abstract context, where people did not matter, in the sense that no specific people were considered. Instead, we dealt with aggregates such as “an organization”, “the market”, “the department”, and the like. People other than the decision maker were considered only implicitly and from a distance, from “far away”, as we suggested in the title. Although making decisions without involving other people is practically impossible (Robinson Crusoe never existed), we used those abstract, aggregate concepts to analyze our role as decision makers. In other situations, however, the presence of real people near the decision maker cannot be disregarded or treated as something abstract. In this chapter we intend to start analyzing decisions in which people are “close” to the decision maker, so that the effects of his decisions on these other people must be taken into account. We will do this by considering the relationship between two people.