Rational-choice models assume that a person has a single set of well-defined goals, and that the person's behavior is chosen to best achieve those goals. Professor Loewenstein and his colleagues have developed a model in which a person's behavior is the outcome of an interaction between two systems: a deliberative system that assesses options with a broad, goal-based perspective, and an affective system that encompasses emotions and motivational drives. Their model provides a framework for understanding many departures from full rationality discussed in the decision-making literature, and captures the familiar feeling of being 'of two minds.' By focusing on factors that moderate the relative influence of the two systems, the model also generates a variety of novel testable predictions.
This event is co-sponsored by the Center on Advancing Decision Making for Aging (CADMA) at Stanford -- an interdisciplinary research collaboration administered by CHP/PCOR -- and by the Stanford Center on Longevity, another multidisciplinary research collaboration at the University.