The Rational Actor Model
Many social sciences use a model of “rational actors” that completely think through options and make decisions consistent with their preferences. This model of human decision making is particularly prevalent in the field of economics, where it underlies most of the results and thinking. However, many other social scientists strongly dislike this model of decision making, arguing that it is has unrealistic expectations on humans and is demonstrably false. What follows is some of my thoughts about the utility and usefulness of the rational actor model of human decision making. As a theory of human decision making, the rational actor model is certainly not perfect. It does not explain how decisions are made, and it doesn’t accurately describe all human decisions. However, it is a very useful model of behavior because it provides strong and simple guidance on how to think through decisions in a way that provides reasonable and relatively accurate predictions about complicated human behaviors.