Title: A hypothesis on rationalising decisions by constructing personal realities

Authors: Mahmoud Yousef Askari; Ghaleb A. El Refae

Addresses: Business Administration Department, College of Business, Al Ain University, P.O. Box 64141, Al Ain, UAE ' Business Administration Department, College of Business, Al Ain University, P.O. Box 64141, Al Ain, UAE

Abstract: In this paper, we propose a hypothetical model to show how people construct their realities, and how they subjectively rationalise their decisions and actions. We hypothesise that when making individual decisions, what matters is the reality as perceived by individual decision makers, regardless of the objective or subjective approach to reality. The paper attempts to study the link between perceived reality (subjective reality), and how people rationalise their decisions and actions. The paper sheds light on how people know what they know, and how that might affect their sense of rationality when making decisions. The paper explains that people come across knowledge in a daily basis, and that they decide to accept, reject, or adjust that knowledge, using their subjective validation process that is guided by their experiences, biases, and beliefs.

Keywords: perceived reality; subjective validation; construction of personal reality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2024.139288

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2024 Vol.28 No.1, pp.120 - 134

Received: 15 Nov 2021
Accepted: 11 Jan 2022
Published online: 01 Jul 2024 *

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