Irrational Behavior
Choices that depart from consistent self-interest, whether through bias, emotion, habit, or principle.
Why it matters now
Much so-called irrationality is the best news available. People punish cheaters at personal cost, give to strangers, and protect places they will never visit. These departures from narrow self-interest are the raw material of every conservation movement, and policy that harnesses them outperforms policy that assumes them away.
Where this is happening on Earth
- AsiaChipko movement, Uttarakhand, IndiaVillagers embraced trees to stop felling, accepting personal risk for a forest whose value was shared and largely future.
- AfricaWangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement, KenyaDecades of planting and imprisonment for a canopy she would not live to see mature; over fifty million trees planted.
- OceaniaBob Brown and the Franklin River campaign, Tasmania, AustraliaThousands accepted arrest to protect a river valley most had never entered.
- EuropeGreta Thunberg's school strike, Stockholm, SwedenA single costly and apparently futile act that propagated into a global movement.
- South AmericaChico Mendes, Acre, BrazilA rubber tapper who organised for extractive reserves and was killed for it; the reserves exist today.
The idea itself
The encyclopedia entry first, then live searches at journals and magazines that keep returning current work on this specific idea.
Current reporting from around the world
Standing feeds at reputable periodicals. These stay fresh on their own, which is why they are here instead of a list of articles that would be out of date within a season.