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Satisficing


Satisficing is a decision-making strategy or cognitive heuristic that entails searching through the available alternatives until an acceptability threshold is met.[1] The term satisficing, a portmanteau of satisfy and suffice,[2] was introduced by Herbert A. Simon in 1956,[3][4] although the concept was first posited in his 1947 book Administrative Behavior.[5][6] Simon used satisficing to explain the behavior of decision makers under circumstances in which an optimal solution cannot be determined.

[17] The most common application of the concept in economics is in the behavioral theory of the firm, which, unlike traditional accounts, postulates that producers treat profit not as a goal to be maximized, but as a constraint. The idea of the aspiration level was introduced by Herbert A. Simon and developed in economics by Richard Cyert and James March in their 1963 book A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. "Telephone versus Face-to-Face Interviewing of National Probability Samples with Long Questionnaires: Comparisons of Respondent Satisficing and Social Desirability Response Bias".

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