Gigerenzer,G.

What is the nature of moral behavior? According to the study of bounded rationality, it results not from character traits or rational deliberation alone, but from the interplay between mind and environ- ment. In this view, moral behavior is based on pragmatic social heuristics rather than moral rules or maximization principles. These social heuristics are not good or bad per se, but solely in relation to the environments in which they are used. This has methodological implications for the study of mor- ality: Behavior needs to be studied in social groups as well as in isolation, in natural environments as well as in labs. It also has implications for moral policy: Only by accepting the fact that behavior is a function of both mind and environmental structures can realistic prescriptive means of achieving moral goals be developed.

Gigerenzer, G. (2010). Moral satisficing: Rethinking moral behavior as bounded rationality. Topics in Cognitive Science, 2, 528-554. doi:10.1111/j.1756-8765.2010.01094.x(Reprinted in Heuristics: The foundations of adaptive behavior, pp. 203-221, by G. Gigerenzer, R. Hertwig, & T. Pachur, Eds., 2011, New York: Oxford University Press)(Translated and reprinted as Moral Satisficing: Moralisches Verhalten als "Bounded Rationality" in Moral, Wissenschaft und Wahrheit, pp. 223-262, by J. Nida-Rümelin, & J.-C. Heilinger, Eds., 2016, Berlin: De Gruyter) (Full text)

Publication year	2010
Document type:	Article
Publication status:	Published
External URL:	http://library.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/ft/gg/GG_Moral_2010.pdf View
Categories:	Social RationalityBounded RationalitySatisficingSocial heuristicsEnvironment Structure
Keywords:	bounded rationalitymoral behaviorsocial heuristics