Are We Overestimating How Logical Humans Really Are?

R3ciprocity.com - Prof David Maslach: Innovation; Research Life; Striving Towards Happiness · Jul 11, 2026 · 8m

The longer I study social science, the less I believe we’re “rational.”

That’s uncomfortable to say as a business professor.

Because so much of what we do is built on:

• clean models

• statistical logic

• the idea that people process information and make decisions

It’s elegant.

It’s persuasive.

It gets respect.

But I’ve always had this unease.

⸻

The models are neat.

Reality isn’t.

They rely on assumptions:

• that we process information cleanly

• that more data leads to better decisions

• that behavior is explainable if we just measure it well enough

But in my own life…

that’s not how it…