From "Economic Man" to Behavior Economics: A Short History of Modern Decision Making

Research into the decision making process accelerated during World War II, focusing on the development of a standard approach to evaluating options with regard to an uncertain future. Decision analysis emerged in the 1960s, combining computer modeling, Bayesian statistics, expected utility, and engineering techniques. The heuristics-and-biases approach emerged soon after. These two decision-making philosophies are joined by a third: intuition, or "going with one's gut." Decision analysis is best for use with reliable data; heuristics/biases is best for understanding priorities and avoiding mistakes; intuition is best for learning opportunities or in highly unpredictable situations in which data is unreliable.