The Impact of Emotions on Our Rational Economic Decisions

There are many factors that affect the attitudes and behaviors of human beings, which have a very complex structure. However, mainstream economic theories have ignored other characteristics, including the role of emotions, by assuming that human beings are “rational” in the economic decision-making process. Although this assumption is actually controversial, it still maintains its strong established position in economic theories. In the study, the history of economic rationality and the objections developed against the rational individual were examined, and whether emotions affect the economic decision-making process was analyzed with a hypothetical experimental study, first based on observation, and then subjected to the Mann Whitney U test. According to the findings, it was determined that people are also affected by their feelings that they do not act solely on the assumption of rationality in the economic decision-making process. This finding is presented both as a unique contribution to the economics literature and as an option to be evaluated for economic policy makers.