Book Review: How an Evolutionary Model is Better at Explaining Decisions than Neo-Classical and Behavioral Economics Models

Abstract

Reviews the book, The Rational Animal: How Evolution Made Us Smarter than We Think by Douglas T. Kenrick and Vladas Griskevicius (2013). With their years of experience in evolutionary psychology, the authors examine decision-making through an evolutionary lens. To illustrate the points that are made, the authors use examples often involving individuals and situations that are well known. Most chapters are opened with extreme statements which are slowly unpacked throughout the chapter by applying the main concept of the chapter to the statement. In this fashion the book gives answers to outlandish statements, that are often not as bad as they seem. The illustrative examples, extreme statements, and more informal style of writing makes The Rational Animal an easy, yet informative read about a rather new way of looking at decision-making. The authors have one overarching point. Rational choice theory or neo-classical and behavioral economics models of decision-making are insufficient because the former does not fit with the numerous apparent violations of rational choice that behavioral economists have noted and the latter is insufficient because it presumes that decisions are driven solely by emotional eddies in people. The authors suggest that both are incomplete and essentially superficial ways at looking at decision-making. As is the case for most evolutionary work, they argue that we must look deeper, we must look underneath the surface so that they can learn the adaptive reasons behind our apparent irrationality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)