Cognitive Biases in Decision Making in Post-Bureaucratic Organizations

Background

The evolution of the ideas regarding the human decision-maker reveals why researchers developed behavioral economics, and helps to understand the rise of the importance of cognitive biases. The ideas of the 17^th century are far-gone but they are essential to understand the evolution of the field of decision-making.

In the 17^th century, Descartes developed the Cartesian model of rationality which describes how human reasoning is and should be logical. He assumed that our reasoning is conscious and deliberate. Influenced by Descartes, Leibniz imagined a mathematical model for decision-making in 1677 that would lead all reasonable persons using it to a same conclusion. His idea was to create characteristic numbers for all ideas. Disputes would be reduced to computations involving those numbers. Abandoning all subjectivity in decision-making, his model would eradicate all never-ending disputes.