Transformative decisions

Some of the most fundamental decisions we make in our lives – such as becoming a parent or moving to a different part of the world – are transformative. According to Laurie Paul (2014), transformative decisions pose a major problem to us because they fall outside the realm of rationality. Her argument in favor of that conclusion rests on the premise that the subjective value (i.e., the value of experiencing a certain outcome of a decision) plays the central role in transformative decisions. This paper challenges that premise and hence the overall conclusion that transformative decisions usually are not rational. In the theoretical part, we specify the conditions under which transformative decisions are possibly rational and likely to be rational. The data we present in the empirical part reveal that subjective value often plays only a minor role in people’s decision-making process. Putting both parts together, we argue that people have a great chance of making rational transformative choices.