Descriptive decision science says how people do make up their minds (e.g. as psychological and organizational theory). Normative decision science says how ideal people would make up their minds (e.g. as statistical decision theory). Prescriptive decision sciences (PDS) says how people should make up their minds (including a distinctive fusion of the descriptive and normative). PDS support the development and validation of decision-aiding technology, to make it appropriate for specific circumstances, balancing considerations of feasible input, useful output, logical coherence, and cost of implementation. The author argues for a major redirection of effort toward PDS by the decision science community, and suggests promising directions for its development with illustrations from his company’s work.
