ABSTRACT
This chapter explores these cognitive processes and how they could lead to rather tragic consequences. A pervasive fear among individuals today is the idea that they may someday become irrelevant. Ethical issues have greater consequences than ever before. Neoclassical economic theory suggests that people have rational preferences among outcomes; individuals maximize utility and firms maximize profits; and people act independently on the basis of full and relevant information. Rational choice theory states that people will make rational decisions that will provide the greatest utility with the least amount of effort from the available choices. It assumes that it would be irrational to do things that could have potential long-term damage to this utility, that is, no one would want to jeopardize their future by engaging in illegal activities. All citizens of a society are brought up to respect the social norms of that society.
