Values, Purpose, Meaning, and Expectations: Why Culture and Context Matter

The "rational person" standard, based on assumptions of economic self-interest, has long prevailed in legal reasoning. But understanding of decision making, behavioral choices, and possibilities for action must be enlarged to include a variety of factors that give meaning to any circumstance and thus shape behavior: past experience, expectations about the future, group membership, and cultural values. This article opens with a series of thought experiments to explore the potential behavioral implications of a hypothetical $1,000 to introduce the idea that context, history, and values shape perceptions and expectations. These phenomena can propel behaviors that can lead to circumstances improving or deteriorating-upward or downward spirals, or winning and losing streaks. Empirical evidence is drawn from research on companies and teams that have sustained success or deteriorated in their performance, as well as research on the leadership and culture in organizations that endure over time. The focus is on complex interactions unfolding over time rather than the reasoning of particular individuals. But the article also shows how individuals behave in concert because of the self-fueling trajectory in which response provokes response, in either positive or negative directions, in what are more popularly termed winning streaks and losing streaks. Upward spirals produce confidence that motivates effort. Because the positive upward cycle is attributed to one's own actions, people begin to believe that it will never end: assertions are made that the laws of the universe have changed, that business cycles have disappeared, and that success is inevitable. Conversely, when things are going down, people start believing they will always go down. Success breeds success, and failure or loss breeds loss. The article argues for a broader explanation of behavior beyond economic instrumentality. It is time to turn again to psychology, sociology, and anthropology to explain and predict human behavior. Then we can understand that rationality also includes things that were once considered irrational, such as altruism or sacrifice in the interest of the greater good.