Choice Theory: A Very Short Introduction

We make choices all the time - about trivial matters as well as important ones that affect our lives and those of others. We also constantly judge the decisions that other people make as rational or irrational. But what kind of criteria are we applying when we say that a choice is rational and what guides our own choices, especially in cases where we do not have complete information about the outcomes? What strategies should be applied in making decisions that affect lots of people, as in the case of government policy?This book explores what it means to be rational in all these contexts. It shows how the theory applies to particular situations, such as whether to undergo an operation if you are told that the mortality rate is 25 per cent, the relative advantages of 'first past the post' and proportional representation in elections, and whether a country should develop a nuclear capability when it knows that others face the same choice.
We make choices all the time--about how to spend our money, about how to spend our time, about what to do with our lives. And we are also constantly judging the decisions other people make as rational or irrational. But what kind of criteria are we applying when we say that a choice is rational? What guides our own choices, especially in cases where we don't have complete information about the outcomes? What strategies should be applied in making decisions which affect a lot of people, as in the case of government policy?This book explores what it means to be rational in all these contexts. It introduces ideas from economics, philosophy, and other areas, showing how the theory applies to decisions in everyday life, and to particular situations such as gambling and the allocation of resources.