Sun-Ki Chai, Choosing an Identity: A General Model of Preference and Belief Formation (University of Michigan Press, 2001).

This book presents a general model of preference and belief formation for integration with choice-theoretic models of action, then applies the integrated model to major unresolved issues in the study of international development. The model draws upon a wide range of research traditions covering each of the major social science disciplines as well as philosophy and cognitive science. I attempt to show how the model integrates findings and ideas from these different literatures, but also how it can be used to reconcile theoretical disagreements by specifying more clearly the conditions under which different preference and belief formation outcomes will occur.

One basic assumption behind the model is that individuals simultaneously choose preferences, beliefs and actions in a way that preserves identity coherence. Identity coherence is defined as a condition in which past actions and future intentions are viewed as cumulatively optimal given preferences and beliefs. The concept of identity coherence draws upon and extends the philosophical concept of epistemological coherence, but its formalization is based upon the microeconomic concept of regret and its causal role is related to that of psychological concepts such as dissonance, consistency, and balance.

Under most circumstances, multiple coherence-preserving configurations of preferences, beliefs and actions will be possible for any individual. The other basic assumption of the model is that individuals, while making selections from a menu provided by phenomenological experiences and communicated cultural alternatives, will chose the configuration that minimizes the complexity of the additional preferences and beliefs beyond this menu that must be adopted to achieve identity coherence. This assumption incorporates notions of social construction and bounded rationality, but without assuming rigid conformity or introducing unspecified parameters that would render a model unfalsifiable.

It will be shown that, appropriately specified, these assumptions predict in a reasonably determinate fashion the types of preferences and beliefs that will be adopted by an individual under a wide variety of concrete circumstances. Implications will be drawn for theoretical issues such as ideology, socialization, altruism and self-actualizing values, as well their related theoretical literatures. Furthermore, the seemingly non-rational aspects of human communication will be analyzed as consequences of common- knowledge strategic interaction between coherence-preserving actors. The second half of the book will apply the model to three major unresolved substantive issues in the field of comparative international development. These are 1) variation in economic ideologies and policy choices among Third World elites, 2) the location of the boundaries of ethnic identity and collective action, and 3) the relationship between structural change, political culture, and political violence. For each of these issues, a theory based on the model will be shown to provide a level of determinacy and accuracy that goes beyond that of existing theories, and to provide a micro-basis for macro-level phenomena.