A decision-maker has neither the time and space nor the ability to arrive at an optimal solution and many individuals may not seek to optimize at all. The idea of bounded rationality is that individuals strive to be rational having first greatly simplified the choices available. Thus, instead of choosing from every location, the decision-maker chooses between a small number. The result may be that decision-makers become satisficers; they accept a satisfactory solution which is good enough for their purposes rather than finding the optimum answer. Early work on the theory of bounded rationality is associated with H. A. Simon (1956).

R. W. Kates (Economic Geography, 47) applied Simon's theory to hazards, in which context bounded rationality means that an individual responds to a hazard only after a threat is perceived, and that any ensuing action is based on a subjective assessment of a perceived range of options.

A Dictionary of Geography. Copyright © Susan Mayhew 1992, 1997, 2004. All rights reserved.