Bounded Rationality: Bridging Cognition and Emotion in Decision Making
A special issue of Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X). This special issue belongs to the section "Behavioral Economics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 June 2026 | Viewed by 1
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue aims to explore the cognitive and emotional foundations of bounded rationality. Bounded rationality is a concept that describes how decision-making is limited by cognitive constraints and incomplete information, leading individuals to make satisfactory rather than optimal choices. It acknowledges that while people generally try to act rationally, their abilities to gather, process, and understand information are limited.
Traditionally, bounded rationality has been associated with such issues as optimization under constraints and reasoning fallacies, but the focus has lately shifted from cognition to emotion. Consequently, analyses of motivation, affect, intuition, regret, and social norms have become important.
This Special Issue seeks submissions related (but not limited to) the following topics related to decision making processes:
- The limits of human cognitive processing.
- The impact of limited information.
- The use of heuristics and mental shortcuts.
- The importance of cognitive limitations or time constraints.
- The influence of motivation, regret, feelings of fairness, satisfaction, or emotional arousal.
- The influence of emotional conflict, social norms and expectations, or risk perception.
- The importance of cognitive dissonance.
The Special Issue seeks contributions from such disciplines as behavioral economics, behavioral decision making, behavioral organizational theory, experimental economics, experimental social psychology, and marketing. It welcomes original research articles, review articles, case studies, and thought-provoking perspectives that contribute to a deeper understanding of the complexity inherent in the concept of bounded rationality. Furthermore, it seeks to foster dialogue among scientists and researchers interested in advancing knowledge and critical thinking in the field.
Prof. Dr. Marcus Selart
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Behavioral Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- bounded rationality
- decision making
- cognition
- emotion
- heuristics
- cognitive constraints
- risk perception
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