Theoretical Position on Embodied Bounded Rationality: The Body Is an Informant for Choices

We introduce the concept of embodied choices from a bounded rationality perspective (based on Michirev et al., 2021). Bounded rationality proposes that the state of the world is uncertain as actions can have unpredictable consequences (Simon, 1972). Moreover, humans’ cognitive ability is limited by the computational power of the brain. Together, the uncertainty of the world and humans limited cognitive abilities create the bounds of cognition and therefore bounds for human decision making. In such a perspective, choices are products of the brain “producing satisfying solutions” out of limited information provided by the world and bounded by its own processing power. In this presentation, we would argue that this account completely ignores the information from within the body itself (bodily cues; Raab 2021). We make our case by illustrating how bodily cues impact abstract choices in settings that do not require the body but still are driven by the body. For example, westernized adults make systematic errors during mental arithmetic (+/- five from the correct result) that are driven by hand-based mental representations of numbers (one hand represents a set of five) learned as a child. For this, we use numerical cognition as a testbed and show how bodily parts such as fingers inform numerical choices. Furthermore, we suggest developmental trajectories when embodied choices should be most sensitive to training.