What is the core assumption of Rational Choice Theory (RCT) about individuals?
Individuals are fundamentally self-interested and make choices to maximize their preferences.
What does instrumental rationality mean in RCT?
Acting in accordance with one’s preferences and beliefs about how to achieve them.
What are complete and transitive preferences?
Complete Preferences: An individual can always make a choice among options.
Transitive Preferences: If A is preferred to B, and B to C, then A is preferred to C.
What is the difference between expressive and tactical voting?
Expressive Voting: Voting for the party you genuinely prefer.
Tactical Voting: Voting to achieve a specific outcome, such as preventing a disliked party from winning.
What is the Downsian model of voting?
Voters evaluate party platforms and select the one closest to their ideal point on ideological spectrums.
What is the collective action problem?
When individuals acting in their own self-interest produce worse outcomes for the group.
What is the tragedy of the commons?
Overuse of shared resources because individuals benefit personally from overuse, even though it harms the group
What is the free rider problem?
Individuals benefit from the efforts of others without contributing themselves.
What is game theory in political science?
The study of strategic interactions where the outcome depends on the choices of multiple actors.
Describe the Prisoner’s Dilemma.
Two individuals can either cooperate (stay silent) or defect (betray), with outcomes depending on the combination of choices.
What is a Nash Equilibrium?
A set of strategies where no player can benefit by changing only their own strategy.
What is the tit-for-tat strategy in iterated games?
Cooperate initially and then replicate the opponent’s previous move, cooperating unless betrayed.
What is the duel game in game theory?
A sequential game where players decide when to act (e.g., when to shoot), with the equilibrium point being when the probability of success just exceeds 50%.
What are some limitations of Rational Choice Theory?
Many voters do not behave as RCT predicts.
Human decision-making is influenced by cognitive biases, framing effects, and motivated reasoning.
People often lack motivation or ability to act fully rationally.
How does context affect human reasoning according to the Wason selection task?
People perform better on logic tasks when problems are contextualized rather than abstract, showing reasoning is context-dependent.
What does RCT assume about decision-making?
Individuals always make the best possible choice from available options to maximize their utility.
What role do constraints play in Rational Choice Theory?
Individuals face physical, institutional, or social constraints that limit their ability to achieve preferences, requiring trade-offs.
Why does Rational Choice Theory use simplified models?
To generalize about group behavior and identify expected outcomes (equilibria) despite the complexity of real-world interactions.
What is the significance of the median voter in two-party systems?
Parties tend to move toward the center to capture the median voter, who represents the largest group of voters.
How does Rational Choice Theory explain climate change behavior?
Through the tragedy of the commons and collective action problems, where individuals prioritize self-interest over group welfare.
What is the importance of preferences in Rational Choice Theory?
Preferences guide individuals’ choices and actions to achieve desired outcomes.
How does Rational Choice Theory view individuals in social science?
As rational actors who calculate the best means to achieve their goals within constraints.
What is the role of beliefs in instrumental rationality?
Beliefs about the effectiveness of actions (instruments) influence how individuals choose to achieve their preferences.
What happens when individuals deviate from Rational Choice Theory assumptions?
The predictive power of RCT models weakens, highlighting the need to consider psychological and contextual factors.
