For an integrative theory of social behaviour: Theorising with and beyond rational choice theory

Abstract

Most sociologists are not content with merely relating macrosocial phenomena to preceding macrosocial causes in their causal explanations of social phenomena. Instead they are seeking to provide (non‐reductive) microfoundations with which they can corroborate and make understandable the connection between macrosocial phenomena. In order to do so a theory (or theories) of human action is required. One such theory, rational choice theory (RCT), has long been viewed with strong suspicion in sociology. I show such suspicion to be partially justified. RCT cannot be a general theory of social behaviour. Nonetheless, there are important insights in various versions of RCT that should not be discarded. In order to improve upon RCT and move toward a more unified or integrative theory of action social‐psychological research has to be taken note of. I demonstrate how dual‐process theories and the research on heuristics can help sociologists move beyond RCT without contradicting some of its more basic insights.

Varieties of ‘rationality’ and the question of their continued theoretical relevance

“…In certain social situations it is not descriptively accurate – so much so that even its theoretical elegance and usefulness, which usually are not directly damaged by lack of realism, start breaking down and can fully break down. This means that for the notion of rationality to be truly helpful in theory-building the social conditions which elicit it in agents have to be specified so the theorist knows when to apply it and when other tools are more appropriate (this was not the purpose of this article but see Opp, 2017b; Rutar, 2019).…”

Preferences stability: A measure of preferences changes over time

“…Additionally, the reader should bear in mind that for simplicity this contribution does not distinguish between individual and social preferences and also it does not consider bounded rationality. These questions restrict the study due to the fact that over time the interaction between different individuals will lead to great differences between individual preferences and social preferences, specially when the bounded rationality of consumer behaviour is considered (see [28] and [29]). Thereby, the measuring models may be different for individual preferences stability and social preferences stability 7 .…”

Cultural orientations and their influence on social behaviour: Catalysation and suppression

“…Anomalies such as the Allais paradox or the Ellsberg paradox as well as cyclical and intransitive choice behaviour are fundamentally incompatible with the rational actor model (Tutić, 2020). 1 Against this background, the DPP is attractive because it offers a general explanation for the occurrence of anomalies: Anomalies arise because actors respond intuitively to choice problems and do not engage in sufficient rational deliberation (Rutar, 2019; Stanovich, 1999). That is, the rational actor model is reinterpreted not as an universal theory of social behaviour, but as a theory which is adequate for reflective behaviour.…”