BEYOND EXPECTED UTILITY - RETHINKING BEHAVIORAL DECISION RESEARCH

Much research in psychology has evaluated the quality of people's deci sions by comparisons with subjective expected utility (SEU) theory. Th is article suggests that typical arguments made for the status of util ity theory as normative do not justify its use by psychologists as a s tandard by which to evaluate decision quality. It is argued that to ev aluate decision quality, researchers need to identify those decision p rocesses that tend to lead to desirable outcomes. It is contended that a good decisionmaking process must be concerned with how (and whether ) decision makers evaluate potential consequences of decisions, the ex tent to which they accurately identify all relevant consequences, and the way in which they make final choices. Research that bears on these issues is reviewed.