Muddling through: A response to Yates and Goldstein

Abstract

In response to comments by Yates and Goldstein (Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 31, 26), the developmental history of the Beach, Townes, and Campbell work on birth-planning decisions is recounted. It is argued that in the course of developing a decision aid that people could and would use, deviations from formal decision theoretic considerations were necessary and that the final result is not unreasonable.