Editing Rationality (section)

=== Cognitive and behavioral sciences ===
[[Cognitive science|Cognitive]] and [[behavioral sciences]] try to describe, explain, and predict how people think and act. Their models are often based on the assumption that people are rational. For example, [[classical economics]] is based on the assumption that people are rational agents that maximize expected utility. However, people often depart from the ideal standards of rationality in various ways. For example, they may only look for confirming [[evidence]] and ignore disconfirming evidence. Another factor studied in this regard are the limitations of human intellectual capacities. Many discrepancies from rationality are caused by limited time, memory, or attention. Often [[heuristics]] and rules of thumb are used to mitigate these limitations, but they may lead to new forms of irrationality.<ref name="Harman2013"/><ref name="Moser2006"/><ref name="Bendor2009"/>