CG asks:
Is most/all economically "irrational" behavior actually rational for one reason or another from the individual's viewpoint?
Nope! This is why we have the field of behavioral economics! Behavioral economics deals with ways that people are systematically irrational. That is, they deviate from rational assumptions of economics, but in ways that we can model. (Other social sciences sometimes talk about irrational behavior we can't model.) A really good example is present discount bias-- basically why we procrastinate or eat too much etc. We value now more than we value later, even though we would be willing to pay for a commitment device that forces us to work instead of play video games, eat healthy food instead of junk, save for retirement instead of spend, etc. etc. etc. That's not rational. Another example is when you break transitivity... like if you value a>b>c you should value a>c, and it shouldn't matter if there's also a d option that you value less floating around. And yet, menus, for example, are designed with expensive items almost nobody buys in order to encourage people to buy something pricier than they normally would. Irrelevant options do affect people's decision-making and not just through information channels. Behavioral economics is fun and exciting!
That said, some seemingly irrational behavior actually is rational. For decades if not centuries, the (white male) economist answer to why women and minorities make less in the market place was because they don't behave enough like men. Women and minorities were irrational-- they didn't get the education needed, they didn't ask, they weren't competitive enough. It's only been in the past 15 years or so that this idea that no, women and minorities are just as rational as white men, perhaps even more so, but they're playing different games. They don't get the education needed because there are barriers in the way or it isn't rewarded, they don't ask because they're punished for asking, they avoid competition because the games are rigged against them or they get punished whether they win or lose. Their (Our) behavior is actually rational given their different constraints.
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