Rational Choice
- LAST REVIEWED: 29 October 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 October 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756384-0070
- LAST REVIEWED: 29 October 2013
- LAST MODIFIED: 29 October 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756384-0070
Introduction
“Rational choice theory” is a general theory of action and is considered one of the three overarching meta-theoretical paradigms in the social sciences, with structural-institutional theories and cultural theories constituting its main competitors. Rational choice theory explains social phenomena as outcomes of individual choices that can—in some way—be construed as rational. Choices are “rational” if they meet some consistency criterion as defined by a decision theory and are suitable to achieve specific goals, given the constraints of the situation. Rational choice theory comes in many varieties, depending on the assumptions that are made concerning preferences, beliefs, and constraints—the key elements of all rational choice explanations. Preferences denote the positive or negative evaluations individuals attach to possible outcomes of their actions. Preferences can have many roots, ranging from culturally transmitted tastes for food or other items to personal habits and commitments. Beliefs refer to perceived cause-effect relations, including the perceived likelihood with which an individual’s actions will result in different possible outcomes. Constraints define the limits to the set of feasible actions. After presenting references containing General Overviews, Reference Works, Textbooks, and Journals, the main part of this article is organized around what can currently be considered as the three major pillars of the framework: the way it approaches the construction of theories (“rational choice model building”), including its assumptions about rationality and preferences of humans; the way it deals with network embeddedness; and the way it deals with institutions. Being a general theory of action, rational choice theory can be, and has been, applied to explain social phenomena in almost any subfield of the social and behavioral sciences, although the section on Selected Applications of Rational Choice Theory can present only an idiosyncratic fraction of these applications. Whereas rational choice theory constitutes the theoretical core of economics, it faces considerable criticism in other branches of the social and behavioral sciences. This reluctance stems from what critics consider the theory’s core assumptions about human nature, and its purportedly bad track record when it comes to empirical evidence. Much of this criticism rests on major misconceptions of the approach and fails to incorporate the considerable advancements that the approach has made during the past two decades. The section on Critique and Advocacy of Rational Choice Theory lists some main contributions to this debate. The article concludes with a selection of Informative Popularizations of Rational Choice Theory of the approach: easy and stimulating reads that apply the core ideas of the approach to a large variety of phenomena.
General Overviews
Two encyclopedia entries provide a very good start for acquiring an introductory general overview of the domain of rational choice theory in sociology (Lindenberg 2006, Hedström and Stern 2008). They are complemented by two article-length texts explicating the foundations of the approach in more detail (Voss and Abraham 2000, Goldthorpe 1998). Udehn 2001 offers an in-depth comparison of different varieties of individualistic explanations. Lichbach 2003 helps to position the rational choice approach in the broader context of other meta-theoretical paradigms. Lindenberg 1985 is useful because it contrasts the micro models of economics and sociology.
Goldthorpe, J. 1998. Rational action theory for sociology. British Journal of Sociology 49.2: 167–192.
DOI: 10.2307/591308
Argues that varieties of rational choice theory can be distinguished along three dimensions: the strength of their rationality requirements, their focus on situational versus procedural rationality, and their claim to be a general versus a specific theory of action. Helps to locate different varieties of the approach in the resulting multidimensional space.
Hedström, P., and C. Stern. 2008. Rational choice and sociology. In The new Palgrave dictionary of economics. Edited by S. N. Durlauf and L. E. Blume, 872–877. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Refers to the work of the key scholars contributing to the emergence of the rational choice approach in sociology. Discusses empirical achievements of the rational choice approach and explicates the differences between sociological and economic versions of the approach as well as its standing within sociology.
Lichbach, M. I. 2003. Is rational choice theory all of social science? Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.
Particularly useful for a systematic comparison of the rational choice approach with the two other social science paradigms, culturalism and structuralism. Also pays attention to the possibilities and limitations of strategies trying to integrate the different approaches.
Lindenberg, S. 1985. An assessment of the new political economy: Its potential for the social sciences and for sociology in particular. Sociological Theory 3.1: 99–114.
DOI: 10.2307/202177
Still the most in-depth analysis of the different conceptualizations of human nature in economics and sociology. Discusses assumptions about human nature along the dimensions of resourcefulness, restrictions, expectations, evaluations, and maximizing (the RREEMM-model).
Lindenberg, S. 2006. Rational choice theory. In International encyclopedia of economic sociology. Edited by J. Beckert and M. Zafirovski, 548–552. New York: Routledge.
A concise and well-structured general overview of the rational choice approach and its application in economic sociology. Useful for its illustration of two variants of the theory’s “basic toolkit”: explanations assuming full information versus less than full information.
Udehn, L. 2001. Methodological individualism: Background, history, and meaning. London: Routledge.
One of the most comprehensive treatments of the philosophical roots of the individualism assumption, a key element of the rational choice approach. It distinguishes between strong assumptions of “natural” methodological individualism made by economists and weaker versions of structural individualism made by sociologists, which allows a broad set of societal-level conditions to influence individual-level choice.
Voss, T., and M. Abraham. 2000. Rational choice theory in sociology: A survey. In The international handbook of sociology. Edited by S. R. Quah and A. Sales, 50–83. London: SAGE.
This general overview has four parts: history of the approach, assumptions about human nature, explanations of social norms, and an overview of applications in diverse fields of sociology. The very transparent presentation of core assumptions addresses some common misconceptions and contains a very useful section on limitations, alternatives, and extensions.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Actor-Network Theory
- Adolescence
- African Americans
- African Societies
- Agent-Based Modeling
- Aging
- Analysis, Spatial
- Analysis, World-Systems
- Anarchism
- Anomie and Strain Theory
- Arab Spring, Mobilization, and Contentious Politics in the...
- Asian Americans
- Assimilation
- Authority and Work
- Bell, Daniel
- Biosociology
- Bourdieu, Pierre
- Careers
- Caste
- Catholicism
- Causal Inference
- Chicago School of Sociology
- Children
- Chinese Cultural Revolution
- Chinese Society
- Citizenship
- Civil Rights
- Civil Society
- Class
- Cognitive Sociology
- Cohort Analysis
- Collective Efficacy
- Collective Memory
- Community
- Comparative Historical Sociology
- Comte, Auguste
- Conflict Theory
- Conservatism
- Consumer Credit and Debt
- Consumer Culture
- Consumption
- Contemporary Family Issues
- Contingent Work
- Conversation Analysis
- Corrections
- Cosmopolitanism
- Crime, Cities and
- Criminology
- Cultural Capital
- Cultural Classification and Codes
- Cultural Economy
- Cultural Omnivorousness
- Cultural Production and Circulation
- Culture and Networks
- Culture, Sociology of
- Democracy
- Demography
- Development
- Deviance
- Discrimination
- Doing Gender
- Du Bois, W.E.B.
- Durkheim, Émile
- Economic Globalization
- Economic Institutions and Institutional Change
- Economic Sociology
- Education
- Education and Health
- Education Policy in the United States
- Educational Policy and Race
- Elites
- Emotions
- Empires and Colonialism
- Entrepreneurship
- Environmental Sociology
- Epistemology
- Ethnic Enclaves
- Ethnicity
- Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis
- Exchange Theory
- Families, Postmodern
- Family
- Family Policies
- Fascism
- Feminist Theory
- Fertility
- Field, Bourdieu's Concept of
- Food
- Forced Migration
- Foucault, Michel
- Frankfurt School
- Friendship
- Gender
- Gender and Bodies
- Gender and Crime
- Gender and Education
- Gender and Health
- Gender and Incarceration
- Gender and Professions
- Gender and Social Movements
- Gender and Work
- Gender Pay Gap
- Gender, Sexuality, and Migration
- Gender Stratification
- Gender, Welfare Policy and
- Gendered Sexuality
- Genocide
- Gentrification
- Gerontology
- Ghetto
- Global Inequalities
- Globalization and Labor
- Goffman, Erving
- Habit
- Health
- Historic Preservation
- Housework
- Human Trafficking
- Identity
- Immigration
- Indian Society, Contemporary
- Institutions
- Intellectuals
- Internet
- Intersectionalities
- Intersex
- Interview Methodology
- Job Quality
- Justice
- Knowledge, Critical Sociology of
- Labor Markets
- Latino/Latina Studies
- Law and Society
- Law, Sociology of
- Leisure
- LGBT Parenting and Family Formation
- LGBT Social Movements
- Life Course
- Lipset, S.M.
- Management
- Markets, Conventions and Categories in
- Marriage and Divorce
- Marxist Sociology
- Masculinity
- Mass Incarceration in the United States and its Collateral...
- Mass Media
- Material Culture
- Mathematical Sociology
- Mead, G.H.
- Medical Sociology
- Mental Illness
- Methodological Individualism
- Middle Classes
- Migration
- Military Sociology
- Money and Credit
- Morality
- Motherhood
- Multiculturalism
- Multilevel Models
- Multiracial, Mixed-Race, and Biracial Identities
- Nationalism
- Non-normative Sexuality Studies
- Norms
- Occupations and Professions
- Organizations
- Paid Work
- Panel Studies
- Parsons, Talcott
- Policing
- Political Culture
- Political Economy
- Political Sociology
- Popular Culture
- Positivism
- Poverty
- Power
- Proletariat (Working Class)
- Protestantism
- Public Opinion
- Public Space
- Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)
- Race
- Race and Sexuality
- Race and Violence
- Race and Youth
- Race in Global Perspective
- Race, Organizations, and Movements
- Racism
- Rational Choice
- Relationships
- Religion
- Religion and the Public Sphere
- Residential Segregation
- Revolutions
- Role Theory
- Rural Sociology
- Scientific Networks
- Secularization
- Sequence Analysis
- Sex versus Gender
- Sexual Identity
- Sexualities
- Sexuality Across the Life Course
- Simmel, Georg
- Single Parents in Context
- Skill
- Small Cities
- Social Capital
- Social Change
- Social Closure
- Social Construction of Crime
- Social Control
- Social Darwinism
- Social Disorganization Theory
- Social Epidemiology
- Social History
- Social Indicators
- Social Mobility
- Social Movements
- Social Network Analysis
- Social Networks
- Social Policy
- Social Problems
- Social Psychology
- Social Stratification
- Social Theory
- Socialization, Sociological Perspectives on
- Sociolinguistics
- Sociological Approaches to Character
- Sociological Research on the Chinese Society
- Sociological Research, Qualitative Methods in
- Sociological Research, Quantitative Methods in
- Sociology, History of
- Sociology of Manners
- Sociology of Music
- Sociology of War, The
- Sports
- Status
- Suburbanism
- Survey Methods
- Symbolic Boundaries
- Symbolic Interactionism
- The Division of Labor after Durkheim
- The State
- Tilly, Charles
- Time Use and Childcare
- Time Use and Time Diary Research
- Tourism, Sociology of
- Transnational Adoption
- Trust
- Unions and Inequality
- Urban Ethnography
- Urban Growth Machine
- Urban Inequality in the United States
- Values
- Veblen, Thorstein
- Violence
- Visual Arts, Music, and Aesthetic Experience
- Wallerstein, Immanuel
- Wealth
- Weber, Max
- Welfare, Race, and the American Imagination
- Welfare States
- Whiteness
- Women’s Employment and Economic Inequality Between Househo...
- Work and Employment, Sociology of
- Work/Life Balance
- Workplace Flexibility