Notes 195
on the notion of decisionmakers’ being cognitively limited. Whatever path public
administration takes, we believe that in regard to decision theory, the fi eld would
be wise to lead rather than follow, and is in a unique position to do so.
Notes
- Th is phrase is modifi ed from Dan Ariely’s book Predictably Irrational: Th e Hid-
den Forces Th at Shape Our Decisions (2009). As in Chapter 8, we use this term as a
reference to an emerging fi eld of decision theory that provides empirical evidence of
how human decisionmaking departs (rather predictably) from rational choice theory
and even bounded rationality (see Kahneman 2011 for a good overview). - Kahneman (2011, 411) stresses the negative connotation associated with “irratio-
nal” and prefers simply to note that the rational agent model does not apply to much
of human behavior.