Rationality and Psychology in International Politics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6268751 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan Mercer (University of Washington, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 01 |
| Publication date | 2005-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Organization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-8183 • E-ISSN: 1531-5088 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0020818305050058 |
| OpenAlex | W2163512969 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 166 |
| References cited | 101 |
The ubiquitous yet inaccurate belief in international relations scholarship that cognitive biases and emotion cause only mistakes distorts the field's understanding of the relationship between rationality and psychology in three ways. If psychology explains only mistakes (or deviations from rationality), then (1) rationality must be free of psychology; (2) psychological explanations require rational baselines; and (3) psychology cannot explain accurate judgments. This view of the relationship between rationality and psychology is coherent and logical, but wrong. Although undermining one of these three beliefs is sufficient to undermine the others, I address each belief—or myth—in turn. The point is not that psychological models should replace rational models, but that no single approach has a lock on understanding rationality. In some important contexts (such as in strategic choice) or when using certain concepts (such as trust, identity, justice, or reputation), an explicitly psychological approach to rationality may beat a rationalist one.I thank Deborah Avant, James Caporaso, James Davis, Bryan Jones, Margaret Levi, Peter Liberman, Lisa Martin, Susan Peterson, Jason Scheideman, Jack Snyder, Michael Taylor, two anonymous reviewers, and especially Robert Jervis and Elizabeth Kier for their thoughtful comments and critiques. Jason Scheideman also helped with research assistance
Ecological rationality · Epistemology · Political psychology · Political science · Politics · Rationality · Reputation · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Economic Sanctions and International Relations · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Philosophy · Political Conflict and Governance · Psychology · Social Psychology
Trust, Rationality and Vulnerability in International Relations
Decided Return Migration
Theorizing States’ Emotions1
A practice theory of emotion for International Relations
Realism and International Relations
Trust in International Cooperation
Introduction
The World Imagined
Reasoning of State
Trust and calculation in international negotiations
Emotions and EU foreign policy
Don’t we have a right to get angry? Integrating emotions into international mediation studies
Progressiveness of increase to utility from socioeconomic activities
The EU’s Approach to Sanctions on Russia
Public Trust in Global AI Governance Across Geopolitical Rivals
Emotions in a diaspora’s interpretation of political developments in their place of origin
Shooting From the Hip
Threat Perception in International Relations
Ideology and Mass Killing
The Prison Cell
Inequality, Grievances, and Civil War
Public support for negotiated settlement of interstate war
On the Historical Roots of Interstate Conflicts
Emotional Reconciliation
Recognition and Collective Identity Formation in International Politics
Cambio institucional en América latina
Symbiotic Realism
An Alternative Explanation for Anti-Japanese Sentiment in China
Emotions and Identity as Foreign Policy Determinants
Introduction
Political psychology of emotion(al) norms in European Union foreign policy
Stopping Mass Atrocities
Trustful behaviour is meaningful behaviour
Relational trust in international cooperation
Going global
Trust as a discourse
What Drives Trust in Chairs of Multilateral Negotiations? Rational, Relational, Reputational, and Emergent Trust
You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression? First Encounters and Face-Based Threat Perception
Renewing the Study of Trust in World Politics
Trusting Through the Moscow-Washington Hotline
Emotional and Rational Decision-Making in Strategic Studies
Introduction
Emotions and affect in terrorism research
The arrival of psychological constructivism
Respect and disrespect in international politics
Affective neuroscience, emotional regulation, and international relations
Feeling like a state
Walter Lippmann, emotion, and the history of international theory
Turning’ everywhere in IR
Theorizing emotions in world politics
Social bonding in diplomacy
Realism, emotion, and dynamic allegiances in global politics
It takes all types
Unbalanced Policy Priorities and the Interrogation of Terror Suspects
Predilection or Prediction? Country Selection for the President's Daily Intelligence Brief, 1961–1977
Aiding Strangers
La coopération européenne en matière de sécurité et défense face au Léviathan de Thomas Hobbes
EThekwini’s green and ecological infrastructure policy landscape
Toward An Affect Based View of Principal–Agent Dynamics
To Hell with the Cell
The Promise of Historical Sociology in International Relations
What's in a Norm? Centering the Study of Moral Values in Scholarship on Norm Interactions
Theory of Irrational Politics
New Directions for IPE
The Methodological Machinery of Wargaming
Human nature and the first image
Explaining why state X made a certain move last Tuesday
The power of (emotion) words
Understanding international Schadenfreude
Fear the fear
Rationality, norms and identity in international relations
Is It the End of the COP as We Know It? An Analysis of the First Year of Virtual Meetings in the UN Environment and Sustainable Development Arena
Initiating Trust in High Politics
Considerations for disaster response as defence diplomacy
Resilience and adaptation of the UK’s arts sector during the process of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU
Securitization as a causal mechanism
Why moral commitments matter
Sanctioning as a goal unto itself
Trans-atlantic (mis)trust in perspective
Fighting on
Distinction, Necessity, and Proportionality
Microfoundations in international relations
Security implications and governance of cognitive neuroscience
Russia’s war on Ukraine
Why can’t a woman be more like a man? Female leaders in crisis bargaining
Art after 9/11
Does trust facilitate cooperation in the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (Focac)? A socio-psychological approach
Modernity, boredom, and war
The Rarity of Realpolitik
The Illusion of International Prestige
The Rubicon Theory of War
Collective Narcissism and Hungary’s Kin-State Policy after 2010
Personalizing the presidency
Betrayal of trust in the European Parliament
European migration governance in the context of uncertainty
Rethinking pragmatism through the lens of Michel Foucault
An emotions agenda for peace
From trust to trusting
Trust and confidence in regime creation and sustainment
The affective production of others
The theory of political coalitions.
Economic Action and Social Structure
Justice and the Genesis of War
Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences
Alchemies of the Mind
Models of Bounded Rationality
Analogies at War
Reputation, Compliance, and International Law
A Neural Basis for Social Cooperation
A perspective on psychology and economics
The nature of human altruism
Précis of Simple heuristics that make us smart
Prejudice From Thin Air
Psychology as the behaviorist views it.
In Search of Homo Economicus
Social Dilemmas
On the reality of cognitive illusions.
Personality
Trust as Noncognitive Security about Motives
Risk Aversion and Expected-utility Theory
Judgment under Uncertainty
Beyond Freedom and Dignity
The logic of images in international relations.
An economic theory of democracy
The Purpose of Intervention
After Hegemony
The psychology of interpersonal relations.
Social Choice and Individual Values
Actors and Preferences in International Relations
Perception and Misperception in International Politics
Rational Choice and Social Theory
Social Theory of International Politics
The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior
Collective Trust and Collective Action
The Intuitive Psychologist And His Shortcomings
Darwin's Cathedral
Social Identifications
The Economic Approach to Human Behavior
Economic Action and Social Structure
Imagined (Security) Communities
The Passion of World Politics
Social identity theory
Folk Psychology and Cognitive Architecture
Shame and Humiliation
Leadership Style and Soviet Foreign Policy
Beyond Deterrence
How Minorities Continue to Be Excluded from Equal Employment Opportunities
The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations
Behaviour and the Concept of Preference
A Note on the Pure Theory of Consumer's Behaviour
A case history in scientific method
From tools to theories
Explaining discussion-induced cooperation
Rational Deterrence
Assumptions of Rationality and Non-Rationality in Models of the International System
Rational Deterrence Theory and Comparative Case Studies
Saddam Hussein of Iraq
The Political Psychology of Rational Choice Theory
Political Psychology and Social Neuroscience
Crossing No Man's Land
Social Capital, Television, and the “Mean World
International Norm Dynamics and Political Change
Trust, Reassurance, and Cooperation
Rationalist explanations for war
The Might of the Pen
Rationality in International Relations
Anarchy and identity
Psychology and International Relations Theory
Prospect Theory and Political Science
Choice behavior in social dilemmas
Individual adaptations and structural change as solutions to social dilemmas
When are we better than them and they worse than us? A closer look at social discrimination in positive and negative domains
The Affections and the Passions
Trust as an Affective Attitude
The Psychology of Prejudice
In-group bias in the minimal intergroup situation
Errors and mistakes
Anomalies
In Honor of Matthew Rabin
Anomalies
Value and need as organizing factors in perception
The Effect of Dynamic and Static Choice Sets on Political Decision Making
A Behavioral Approach to the Rational Choice Theory of Collective Action
The Passions and the Interests
| Unique citing works | 166 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 7,9 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2026 (22) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 166 |