X-Message-Number: 27041
References: <>
From: David Stodolsky <>
Subject: Re: Thoughtful post by Peter Merel
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 12:59:19 +0200

On 14 Sep 2005, at 14:57,  wrote:

> In the field of investments, economics, brokerage, and financial  
> planning,
> there is constant discussion about whether people (and investors) are
> rational.  There is good evidence and research to indicate that  
> they (we)  are not.

In the academic world, economic rationality is treated primarily as  
an assumption of convenience. That is, the actor that evaluates all  
choices, information, and consequences before calculating an optimal  
decision is not assumed to be a realistic model of a person. There  
are, of course, free-market fundamentalists who reject any criticism  
of the economic man model.

Within the framework of terror management theory (existential  
psychology), rationality is demonstrated to be lost when mortality  
salient stimuli enter the decision making context. My earlier quoted  
abstract is one example of this effect.


dss

David Stodolsky    Skype: davidstodolsky

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