!VAR HAGENDOORN

Kahneman and Renshon on Why Hawks Win

An interesting article by Nobel laureate in economics Daniel Kahneman and Jonathan Renshon, Why Hawks Win (Foreign Policy, January/February 2007), uses insights from psychology and behavioral economics to explain why decision makers tend to listen more to hawks, who tend to favor coercive action and the use of military force, than to the doves who are skeptical about the usefulness of force and prefer dialogue.

Update Fall 2008: This paper is also highly relevant in relation to the current calls for action on the financial crisis and impending economic downturn.