Culture and the explanation of choice behavior

This paper shows how alternative, culturally-determined motivational forces can be substituted for self-interest or rationality in the theory of choic e. Several possibilities are considered, including the replacement of prefe rence optimization by such propellants as the selection of the 'second best ' or the 'central' option. It is argued that although all choice behavior, even that consistent with the alternatives considered, can ultimately be un derstood as satisfying the criterion of rationality, richer and more meanin gful explanation is obtained by focusing on culturally significant alternat ive motivations when the latter turn out, in particular environments, to be more important than self-interest.