The Rhetoric of Irrationality

Abstract

The popularity of the ‘biases and heuristics’ literature is examined critically in terms of the rhetorical factors that have mediated widely published claims that human judgment abilities are poor and even irrational. The logic of the original experiments is examined as well as the factors that cause that logic to be ambiguous and the implications of the experiments to be misrepresented. Questionable use of evaluative language in scientific articles and secondary gains to outside authors who spread the bias message are also examined. © 1991, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.