Ecological rationality is a theory that focuses on decision-making processes depending on the particular context a decision is made. As put by Mata et al. (2012), “the notion of ecological rationality sees human rationality as the result of the adaptive fit between the human mind and the environment” (p. 1). This essay concentrates on the concept of ecological rationality, its limitations, and benefits, and provides examples of its usefulness.
According to the theory of ecological rationality, decision strategies are heavily dependent on specific circumstances. There is not one rationality principle, but multiple decision heuristics methods, such as recognition, “Take the Best”, tallying, try-a-dozen (Todd & Gigerenzer, 2007). Choosing one of these techniques allows us to save time and resources in decision-making processes, ensuring their efficiency and speed.
Thus, for instance, when a person needs to decide which one of two options is greater by some criterion, recognition might work as a cue and lead to a correct decision. When having to decide which one of the two cities is bigger – New York or Ottawa, one might choose to go with the more recognizable name. The take-the-best method is based on selecting an alternative based on the first cue that discriminates between the other options. If presented with two similar destinations for a holiday, one would want to use the take-the-best technique and decide on the first different factor, for instance, the safety of the destination.
The limitation of ecological rationality is that the heuristic patterns might work differently for different people. Since they depend on physical, biological, social, and cultural factors, their conclusions might not always be correct. Therefore, the efficiency of decisions would be various.
References
Mata, R., Pachur, T., Helversen, B. von, Herfig, R., Rieskamp, J., & Schooler, L. (2012). Ecological rationality: A framework for understanding and aiding the aging decision maker. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 6(12), 1-6. Web.
Todd, P.M., & Gigerenzer, G. (2007). Environments that make us smart. Association for Psychological Science, 16(3), 167-171. Web.