Rational and Symbolic Motivations, Cognitive Limits on Rationality, Emotions

Rational Actor Model

The three elements of the Rational Actor Model

• A feasible set of all courses of action which (are rationally believed to) satisfy various logical, physical, or economic constraints.

• A (rational set of beliefs about the) causal structure of beliefs about what choices will lead to what outcomes.

• A subjective ranking of feasible alternatives in terms of utility associated with each outcome.

  • Utility must be expressed in some kind of common (a.k.a. fungible or comparable) unit.

  • The ranking must be consistent, in that preferences will not bounce around haphazardly from one minute to the next.

  • It must also be transitive.

    • if A > B and B > C, then A > C

The rational choice is the one that maximizes utility for the individual making the choice

The ideal-typic “rational” choice

The easiest way to think of this process is via cost-benefit calculation. Compare the costs and benefits of various alternatives, and select the one that maximizes utility.

• Calculate: U1 = B1 – C1, U2 = B2 – C2, U3 = B3 – C3

• Rank Order: [U1, U2, U3]

• Select highest ranked option.

• RC says nothing about which choice an individual will make when alternatives have equal expected utilities and (therefore cannot be ranked)

Risk and uncertainty

These two factors complicate the situation. With risk, we can assign a numerical probability to the likelihood of a given outcome, but with uncertainty, we cannot

Representative heuristic

The representativeness heuristic is a mental shortcut (or rule of thumb) where people estimate the probability of an event, object, or person by comparing it to an existing mental prototype, stereotype, or past experience rather than looking at actual statistical data

Anchoring effects

a cognitive bias in which people rely too heavily on the first piece of information they encounter (the "anchor") when making decisions, estimates, or value judgments.

Regression to the mean

a statistical phenomenon where an unusually high or low measurement is followed by a subsequent measurement that is closer to the average. people tend to

Endowment effect

People tend to overvalue the winning probability of the door already chosen- already “owned”

Status quo bias

People prefer to keep the choice they have made already

Risk-aversion

We would rather take $100 guaranteed than a 50% shot at $200 (Versus 50% $0

Risk-acceptance

We would rather take a 50% shot at losing nothing (versus 50% $200) than a guaranteed loss of $100

Interpreting “rationality”

• It is subjective rather than objective beliefs that drive “rational” decision-making.

• Utility is a broad enough concept to subsume almost anything. Money, power, influence, happiness, etc.

  • This means that one could call anything “rational.”

• Even limiting our scope to material self-interest, utility maximizations can be…

  • Individual, ego-centric self-interest

  • Group-based, ie tied to conceptions about what is good for social groups one identifies with

  • Socio-tropic (or society-wide)

Symbolic politics model

The symbolic politics model is a framework in political science and political psychology that argues political behavior is driven primarily by intuitive, emotional, and symbolic predispositions rather than cold, rational calculations of material self-interest

Valance view of emotion

In affective science and psychology, the valence view of emotion defines emotional states along a spectrum of intrinsic pleasantness or unpleasantness (good vs. bad feelings

Symbolic politics model: 7 claims

1. People carry strong symbolic predispositions that can have a major influence on how they

see and understand political “objects”

 Examples include party identification, racial identity, religious values, racial prejudice, national

identity, etc…

2. These are normally acquired through classical conditioning early in life.

 We learn to associate a symbol (ie, the U.S. flag) with an emotional response (ie pride) at a young

age.

 The direction of the conditioning depends on what symbols are associated with what kinds of

attitudes.

 The effectiveness of the conditioning depends on frequency and consistency of exposure

 Consider all of the rituals that coincide with how we use & treat the flag

3. Symbolic predispositions remain relatively stable through adult life.

4. Symbolic meaning of an attitude object influences evaluations of it.

5. Particular symbols contained in an attitude object determine which predispositions

are evoked.

6. Predisposition evoked depends on semantic similarity between its symbolic meaning

and specific predisposition

7. Symbols evoke predispositions unthinkingly and automatically, via affective rather

than cognitive processes.

 This is where SP really diverges from RCT.

Motivated reasoning

the process where human thinking starts with a feeling, desire, or pre-existing intuition rather than objective analysis.

The Elephant and the Rider

Haidt uses a famous metaphor from his book The Righteous Mind to explain how the mind works: [1]

• The Elephant: Represents our automatic emotions, intuitions, and subconscious reactions (making up about 99% of our mental processes).

• The Rider: Represents our conscious, rational reasoning.

• The Rider’s Job: The rider's primary function is not to direct the elephant, but to act like a lawyer defending a client—finding post-hoc justifications and excuses for whatever the elephant already wants to do or believe

Theory of Affective Intelligence

The brain’s emotional evaluations originate in the limbic system, which has two subsystems:

 One of these generates emotions related to excitement, elation, enthusiasm

 This subsystem provides direct emotional feedback about success/failure of our current activities.

 The mood created is essential for learning, and more generally the strengthening/weakening of motivation.

 The other generates emotions associated with anxiety, stress, and fear

 The function of this subsystem is to interrupt ongoing activity and call attention to the source of a perceived threat

 “Put more plainly, the appearance of a novel or threatening intrusion causes us to stop, look, listen, and get ready for action.”