The Choice Wave is fundamentally a behavioral-science theory and technique. Because people often reveal their subconscious preferences through monetary choice, economics is an important application, using the framework’s probability, state, and wave-function language to study decision strategies that remain uncertain, contextual, psychologically layered, or dependent upon interaction among several rationalities.
From Classical Rationality to Probabilistic Choice
Traditional economic models often begin with a decision-maker who has consistent preferences and selects the option that maximizes utility. Behavioral economics expanded that account by documenting systematic effects of framing, heuristics, social context, limited information, and other psychological factors.
Probabilistic approaches add another step. Rather than treating the unobserved decision as already fixed, they represent several possible outcomes before the choice is made. The final decision reveals one outcome, while the model describes the probability structure that preceded it.
The Choice Wave within the Field
Radislav Romanovich Johnson began developing the Choice Wave in 2006 and first applied it to demand under the description Wave Function Probabilistic Demand. The model was subsequently presented in peer-reviewed research, including “The Choice Wave: An Alternative Description of Consumer Behavior” in 2012, and later extended to strategic interaction, subconscious games, sustainability, education, religion, land access, and police–public conflict.
The Choice Wave treats a decision as probabilistic before the decision point. Each utility-maximizing possibility carries a probability; once the choice is made, the selected outcome becomes observable. Statistically distinct groups may be represented by separate, orthogonal waves, allowing them to follow different decision strategies without defining one group merely as an irrational version of another. Those strategies may incorporate conscious goals as well as stable subconscious, historical, social, and relational influences revealed through conduct.
This produces the related Theory of Parallel Rationality: different groups may each act rationally according to their own preferences, information, experiences, and constraints. When those rationalities interact, their incentives may align, remain independent, or conflict.
Influence, Interaction, and Bridges
Radislav extended the framework through the Multipoint Gravitational Model, which represents influence among actors. The strength of an interaction depends upon the actors’ relative influence and their effective distance. That distance may be geographical, psychological, historical, social, or technological.
When stakeholders operating under different rationalities prefer incompatible outcomes, a bridge may be needed. A bridge can be an institution, policy, shared incentive, market mechanism, or temporary overlap in preferences. The concept is intended to show not only that interests differ, but also what must change for cooperation or a more efficient outcome to become rational for the participants.
Areas of Application
These uses do not imply that one equation explains every form of human conduct. They show how a common probabilistic structure can be adapted to different decision environments and tested against appropriate data.
Development and Publication
2006: Initial formulation of the Choice Wave approach.
2012: Publication of the principal consumer-behavior formulation.
2015–2022: Applications and extensions in demand, strategic interaction, sustainability, police–public relations, land access, religion, and education.
Within the broader field of quantum economics, the Choice Wave is presented as a specific mathematical and behavioral framework with a documented publication history. Its distinctive contribution is the combination of probabilistic choice, multiple rationalities, and influence among interacting actors.
Selected Scholarship
- The Choice Wave: An Alternative Description of Consumer Behavior (2012)
- A Spatial Application of Choice Waves: Decline in Church Giving in the United States during the Recession (2015)
- A Probabilistic Demand Application in the American Cracker Market (2016)
- Choice Waves and Strategic Interaction (2017)
- A Probabilistic Shortage of Private Land Opened to Hunters in Northwest Minnesota (2018)
- Improving Police-Public Conflict Resolution to Improve Sustainability Decision Strategy (2021)
- Implications of Hybrid Courses on Perceived Learning of Undergraduate Students and their Anticipated Benefits in a Post-Pandemic Environment (2022)
Academic Context
Radislav’s work draws upon formal training in applied economics, applied physics, sustainability, and related fields. That background informs an approach in which mathematical structure is joined to behavioral evidence, institutional context, and practical application.
For the equations, model assumptions, empirical interpretation, and complete reference list, see the technical Choice Wave page.