Lecture 3 POLS 207Outline of Last Lecture I. Definition of Politicsa. PolicyII. What Type of Fairness?III. How should State and Local Governments Decide?IV. Anecdote a. Scorpion and frogOutline of Current Lecture I. Causality and Spuriousness II. Rational Choicea. Opposite of rational choiceIII. Alternatives to Rational ChoiceCurrent LectureCausality and Spuriousness Example: Student A’s favorite chocolate bar is snickers and then student B says that their favorite is snickers as well. - A causes or influenced B (casual) - B causes or influenced A (casual)Coincidence (spurious) The snickers company markets students therefore being an outside influence - C (being company) causes A and B (spurious) Spurious- being driven by something elseRational ChoiceAn individual makes decisions to maximize his or her own utilityOpposite of a rational decision is an emotional decision Alternatives to Rational ChoiceBounded rationality (will discuss in more depth in later lectures)Minimax strategy (will discuss in more depth in later lectures)Irrationality(Make poor decisions under these conditions)-Emotions -Addiction-Etc.Rationality relating to state and local governmentHow do you construct a law if you don’t take rationality into it?Government attempting to change and train behavior through rational