The roots of an irrational decision

[CallMeIshmael]

This stemed from a subthread involving the rationality of voting in one of the 1.3 million "does God exist?" related threads...


Im going to present an overly convoluted situation (the reasons for the odd extras in the story will be made clear at the end) then ask a question that Ive always found interesting


OK, so lets say I woke up today with the thought that it would be just another normal day. However, I hear a knock on my door. I open the door. A normal looking man is standing outside with what appears to be several thousand dollars in bills. He says his name is Tom. Before much else can be said, I hear another man sprinting down the hallway of my dormroom. Somewhat out of breath, he introduces himself as Bob. Both go on to explain to me that they did some internet research, and I have a bottle of Pepsi that has factory production label 13154a. Both say that this number has sentimental value to them (neither says why) and the two proceed to enter a bidding war for my Pepsi bottle. It ends when Tom offers $2300, and Bob fails to counter. I hand Tom the bottle, take the money, and both men leave.


Did anyone in this story make an irrational decision? (I made the story the way I did since we can clearly see that its crazy to value a Pepsi bottle this much, and that no one can say 'its irrational since they could find another Pepsi bottle.' Ie. this is one of a kind)

The problem I see, is: all parties seemed to make technically rational decisions. Tom valued the bottle at greater than $2300, Bob and I valued it at less.


We cant say that Tom valued it at less than $2300, however, it seems so reasonable to want to say he SHOULD have valued it at less. But, can we really start ascribing our own subjective viewpoint of what something should be valued at to others?

However, if we are unable to ascribe these "standard values" to things, can we ever really say any decision anywhere is irrational?



(note: assume for this discussion that there is no magic property to the bottle. There is no reason to believe that they are going to use it in one of those "under the cap" type contests. Assume they just really wanted that bottle)