Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Prospect Theory And The Cyprus Conflict: Analyzing Decisionmaking In The Turkish Cypriot President, Tarah Marie Wheeler

Political Science Masters Theses

Rauf R. Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot president and leader of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, has made many decisions not to negotiate with his Greek Cypriot counterpart for peace and reunification on the island of Cyprus. Traditional rational choice theories do not explain his willingness to sacrifice political power for his policy goals in risky choices. Prospect theory, a cognitive behavioral theory of decisionmaking, may help to explain why Denktash makes those risky choices by showing that decisionmakers who feel themselves to be in the domain of losses will make risky choices to gain their reference point, the location …