Investigation of consumer behaviors within the framework of behavioral economics: The case of city of Adıyaman

The science of economics depicts the human being as a rational creature who ignores human feelings while making decisions that maximizes its benefits under all conditions, and exhibits rational behaviors independent of internal and external influencers. Behavioral economics, on the other hand, does not accept this rational human assumption and advocates the view that individuals are not rational but limited rational. Some factors such as psychological, personal, cultural and social prevent people from acting rationally and push them to limited rationality. In this study, first of all, the relationship between economics and psychology, rationality in traditional and behavioral economics, the historical development process of behavioral economics and decision-making mechanisms, hidden traps in decision-making, factors affecting consumer behavior, consumer behavior models are discussed. In the application part, a questionnaire was applied to individuals with different demographic conditions throughout the city center of Adıyaman and it was examined within the framework of behavioral economics whether consumers' purchasing decisions for goods and services differ depending on gender and age, and in which situations consumers behave rationally and in which situations irrational. As a result of the statistical analysis, it was found that there were differences in consumer purchasing behavior according to gender and age. It has been concluded that consumers sometimes exhibit rational and sometimes irrational behaviors. Keywords: Behavioral Economics, Limited rationality, Consumer Behavior, Gender, Age