A economia comportamental e o debate sociológico sobre a racionalidade

Abstract

Human rationality has been a topic of concern among students since the first Greek philosophical writings. However, the theme is treated by precise and well defined axiomatic only among modern economists. The idea of economic rationality also influenced many works in sociology by providing a simplified model for the comprehension of human choices. In response to many anomalies found in the economic decision models, recent advances are being obtained from the area called behavioral economics, which propose more complex decision models in order to incorporate psychological effects in decision making. Despite being more realistic in the explanation of many biases in decision making, such behavioral models are less mathematically treatable than economic decision models. This work seeks to explore the possible contributions of behavioral econometrics to sociological analyses that are based on the assumption of rationality in decision making. Theoretically speaking, there seems to be many touching points between sociological and psychological concepts, especially those from behavioral economics. However, a concrete dialog between the two fields will only be achieved when the concepts from each field will be systematically incorporated by the other.