New publication: “Making Independent Decisions Together: Rational emotions in legal adjudication”

This is a conceptual paper that advances the study of rational emotions by developing a model of how to incorporate the relational and situational structures in which rational decisions are made. The focus is on bureaucratic rational decision-making, which is constituted by a bounded process including several smaller decisions made over time and by several decision-makers. The model demonstrates that different emotive-cognitive complexes are actualized at different stages of this process and that the (assumed solitary) arbiters are in effect immersed in social interaction. Importantly it shows that rational decision-making is not a dichotomy between emotional bias and detached fairness but a delicate balance between having sufficient solidarity to ensure that the bounded process is upheld and ensuring enough space for participants to demonstrate their independence. The paper also discusses how relational structures at the macro level feed into micro-level interactions, including emotional motivations and behavioral expectations.