Why legal and optimal must differ
HEURISTICS AND THE LAW
Decision Science News is proud to be a part of the recently release by MIT Press Heuristics and the Law, edited by Gerd Gigerenzer and Christoph Engel.
QUOTE FROM CASS SUNSTEIN, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
“An excellent collection, and an important contribution to exciting new work at the intersection of psychology, economics, and law. Highly recommended for everyone interested in knowing how people really behave–and in understanding how actual behavior affects the law”
QUOTE
“In recent decades, the economists’ concept of ration choice has dominated legal reasoning. And yet, in practical terms, neither lawbreakers nor officers of the law behave as the hyperrational beings postulated by rational choice. Critics of rational choice and believers in “fast and frugal heuristics” propose another approach: using certain formulations or general principles (heuristics) to help navigate in an environment that is not a well ordered setting with an occasional disturbance, as described in the language of rational choice, but instead is fundamentally uncertain or characterized by an unmanageable degree of complexity. This is the intuition behind behavioral law and economics.”
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS
Ronald J. Allen, Hal R. Arkes, Peter Ayton, Susanne Baer, Martin Beckenkamp, Robert Cooter, Leda Cosmides, Mandeep K. Dhami, Robert C. Ellickson, Richard A. Epstein, Wolfgang Fikentscher, Axel Flessner, Robert H. Frank, Bruno S. Frey, Paul W. Glimcher, Daniel G. Goldstein, Chris Guthrie, Jonathan Haidt, Reid Hastie, Ralph Hertwig, Eric J. Johnson, Jonathan J. Koehler, Russell Korobkin, Stephanie Kurzenhäuser, Douglas A. Kysar, Donald C. Langevoort, Richard Lempert, Stefan Magen, Callia Piperides, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Clara Sattler de Sousa e Brito, Joachim Schulz, Victoria A. Shaffer, Indra Spiecker genannt Döhmann, John Tooby, Gerhard Wagner, Elke U. Weber, and Bernd Wittenbrink.
