Scientific inspiration

The Why We Decide framework did not appear from nowhere. It draws on psychologists and economists who studied why we decide as we do. None of them worked on this project or endorsed it. The six layers are Why We Decide's own synthesis: it takes particular ideas from their work, not whole theories. Seven of the eight are empirical researchers. James Hillman is a source for form and stance, not for the model. For each person we say what we take, and what we deliberately do differently.

Lawrence Kohlberg

Developmental psychology, moral development

He did not study how people decide correctly. He studied how they justify the decision.

Carol Gilligan

Psychology, ethics of care

Morality does not speak only the language of principles. It also speaks the language of relationships and care.

James Hillman

Archetypal psychology

Meaning hides behind symptoms and behind motivations — the soul speaks in images, not in diagnoses.

Jonathan Haidt

Social psychology, moral intuition

We decide by intuition first, and justify the decision afterwards. Reason is the press secretary of intuition.

Daniel Kahneman

Cognitive psychology, behavioral economics

We think with two systems — a fast intuitive one and a slow deliberating one. The fast one does most of the work.

Amos Tversky

Cognitive psychology, decision theory

Our judgments stray from rationality in systematic ways — and those departures can be predicted.

Richard Thaler

Behavioral economics

People are not rational calculators. An economics that admits this can actually explain deciding — and gently improve it.

Robert Kegan

Adult developmental psychology

Adulthood is not the end of development. What changes is the whole way a person makes sense of the world.