This paper concerns applications of variational analysis to some local aspects of behavioral science modeling by developing an effective variational rationality approach to these and related issues. Our main attention is paid to local stationary traps, which reflect such local equilibrium and the like positions in behavioral science models that are not worthwhile to quit. We establish constructive linear optimistic evaluations of local stationary traps by using generalized differential tools of variational analysis that involve subgradients and normals for nonsmooth and nonconvex objects as well as variational and extremal principles.Recent years have witnessed broad applications of advanced tools of variational analysis, generalized differentiation, and multiobjective (vector and set-valued) optimization to real-life models, particularly those related to economics and finance; see, e.g., [1,3,8,10,11,12] and the references therein. Lately [4,5], certain variational principles and techniques have been developed and applied to models of behavioral sciences that mainly concern human behavior. The latter applications are based on the variational rationality approach to behavioral sciences initiated by Soubeyran in [17,18]. Major concepts of the variational rationality approach include the notions of (stationary and variational) traps, which describe underlying positions of individual or group behavior related to making worthwhile decisions on changing or staying at the current position; see Section 2 for more details. Mathematically these notions correspond to points of equilibria, optima, aspirations, etc. and thus call to employ and develop powerful machinery of variational analysis and optimization theory for their comprehensive study and applications.Papers [4,5] mostly dealt with the study of global variational traps in connections with dynamical aspects of the variational rationality approach and its applications to goal systems in psychology [4] and to capability theory of wellbeing in behavioral sciences [5]. Appropriated tools of variational analysis developed in [4,5] for the study and applications of the aforementioned global dynamical issues were related to set-valued extensions of the