Decision making is commonly considered from the altar of rationality – a logically perfect and optimal strategy based upon perfect, complete information, well ordered criteria and infinite time. Any form of decision making which is not rational is termed “irrational”, and so must be lesser, debased, flawed, illogical, deranged, compared to its ideal counterpart. In real life, however, one has imperfect, incomplete information, finite time, multiple conflicting criteria and changing conditions. Nature has evolved to utilize different decision making strategies in differing contexts. Non-rational is a better term to describe effective, contextual, decision making under suboptimal conditions. Multiple examples of non-rational decision making among humans and social insect colonies will be presented, highlighting the role of contextuality. The fundamental role played by contextuality demands that the statistical analysis of decision making utilize contextual or non-Kolmogorov probability, similar to the mathematics involved in quantum mechanics. In quantum mechanics, contextuality is presented as violation of the Bell inequalities by correlations among measurements. An analogue of these Bell inequalities relevant to psychological measurement, has appeared in the literature, and it too has been shown to be violated in certain psychological experiments. This deep form of contextuality will be discussed.

Bio: William Sulis is Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience at McMaster University and Associate Member in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour. He is Director of the Collective Intelligence Laboratory. He has published over 60 papers and 3 books in psychology and physics. His interests include quantum foundations, process algebra, local-realist models for quantum foundations, the nature of time, the role of transience in dynamics, information flow in complex systems, the dynamics of collective intelligence, and together with his long time collaborator, Irina Trofimova, has explored the continuum linking temperament and states of mental illness.