Ecological Rationality

"More information is always better, and full information is best. More computation is always better, and optimization is best." More-is-better ideals such as these have long shaped our vision of rationality. Yet humans and other animals typically rely on simple heuristics to solve adaptive problems, focusing on one or a few important cues and ignoring the rest, and shortcutting computation rather than striving for as much as possible. In this book, we argue that in an uncertain world, more information and computation are not always better, and we ask when, and why, less can be more. The answers to these questions constitute the idea of ecological rationality: how we are able to achieve intelligence in the world by using simple heuristics matched to the environments we face, exploiting the structures inherent in our physical, biological, social, and cultural surroundings.

Peter M. ToddProfessor Cognitive Science, Informatics, and Psychology at Indiana University
Gerd GigerenzerDirector, Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition

Part I. The Research Agenda
1. What Is Ecological Rationality? Peter M. Todd and Gerd Gigerenzer
Part II. Uncertainty in the World
2. How Heuristics Handle Uncertainty Henry Brighton and Gerd Gigerenzer
3. When Simple Is Hard to Accept Robin M. Hogarth
4. Rethinking Cognitive Biases as Environmental Consequences Gerd Gigerenzer, Klaus Fiedler, and Henrik Olsson
Part III. Correlations Between Recognition and the World
5. When is the Recognition Heuristic an Adaptive Tool? Thorsten Pachur, Peter M. Todd, Gerd Gigerenzer, Lael J. Schooler, and Daniel G. Goldstein
6. How Smart Forgetting Helps Heuristic Inference Lael J. Schooler, Ralph Hertwig, and Stefan M. Herzog
7. How Groups Use Partial Ignorance to Make Good Decisions Konstantinos V. Katsikopoulos and Torsten Reimer
Part IV. Redundancy and Variability in the World
8. Redundancy: Environment Structure That Simple Heuristics Can Exploit Jörg Rieskamp and Anja Dieckmann
9. The Quest for Take-The-Best: Insights and Outlooks from Experimental Research Arndt Bröder
10. Efficient Cognition Through Limited Search Gerd Gigerenzer, Anja Dieckmann, and Wolfgang Gaissmaier
11. Simple Rules for Ordering Cues in One-Reason Decision Making Anja Dieckmann and Peter M. Todd
Part V. Rarity and Skewness in the World
12. Why Rare Things Are Precious: How Rarity Benefits Inference Craig R. M. McKenzie and Valerie M. Chase
13. Ecological Rationality for Teams and Committees: Heuristics in Group Decision Making Torsten Reimer and Ulrich Hoffrage
14. Naïve, Fast, and, Frugal Trees for Classification Laura F. Martignon, Konstantinos V. Katsikopoulos, and Jan K. Woike
15. How Estimation Can Benefit From an Imbalanced World Ralph Hertwig, Ulrich Hoffrage, and Rüdiger Sparr
Part VI. Designing the World
16. Designed to Fit Minds: Institutions and Ecological Rationality Will M. Bennis, Konstantinos V. Katsikopoulos, Daniel G. Goldstein, Anja Dieckmann, and Nathan Berg
17. Designing Risk Communication in Health Stephanie Kurzenhäuser and Ulrich Hoffrage
18. Car Parking as a Game Between Simple Heuristics John M. C. Hutchinson, Carola Fanselow, and Peter M. Todd
Part VII. Afterword
19. Ecological Rationality: The Normative Study of Heuristics Gerd Gigerenzer and Peter M. Todd