I have been re-reading Steve Weber's great book:

Weber, Steven. 2004. The Success of Open Source. Harvard University Press.

…and I wanted to share this wonderful passage:

…theorizing about collective action is not a matter of trying to decide whether behavior can be labeled as 'rational.' It is a matter of understanding first and foremost under what conditions individuals find that the benefits of participation exceed the costs. This means, of course, understanding a great deal about how people assess costs and benefits.

Weber nicely captures somethings that I have been thinking about for a long time: the notion of 'rational' can sometimes be a cop-out, a too-convenient shortcut that sidesteps the messy (but necessary) work of understanding the dispositions, attitudes, and social conditions that influence decision-making in specific contexts.