Assumptions of rational behavior
We should no longer assume rational behavior when constructing the descriptive models of economic behavior -- and that goes for groups and not just individuals.
The work of various economists and psychologists, in the last decades, has shown that people have a limited understanding of utility, change their utility without realizing it, use criteria which they cannot explain nor account for, etc.
Moreover, the studies conducted with expert statisticians, economists and psychologists nailed conclusively the argument that these phenomena are caused by the lack of education in the competent disciplines or some kind of misunderstanding of the normative rules of rational behavior. "Experts" behave, in general, like other humans. (A surprise for the economists, a wag said.)
--Cyrus
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