Being “Rational” Is Not Always Rational: Encouraging People to Be Rational Leads to Hedonically Suboptimal Decisions

Often, laypeople motivate themselves or others to make good decisions by encouraging the decision maker to be “rational.” However, this practice could be counterproductive. Laypeople typically think that rational decisions are anti-emotional, based only on “cold” factors such as economic value, and not influenced by “hot” factors such as hedonic experience. Paradoxically, this lay notion of rationality is in stark contrast with the utilitarian notion of rationality, which maximizes overall utility, in which feelings are essential. Demonstrating this paradox, three studies found that participants who were encouraged to be rational were more likely to choose options that yielded less happiness without other benefits and therefore were less rational in the utility-maximizing sense. The research also examines boundary conditions and discusses practical implications.