Indeed, much finance and economics research and teaching is built on the silly (though occasionally useful) assumption that man is a rational maximizer of his own utilities -- and that these utilities can be measured financially.
Practically useful assumption of zero normal wall mass flux is imposed.
Everyone can change, but the most useful assumption you can make is that the boss will always be the way she is and that any improvement is going to have to come from your end.
However, for the question of informing vaccine licensing protocol, rationality is actually a useful assumption.
However, as a regulative ideal, the concept of God is one that theoretical reason finds useful: "The assumption of a supreme intelligence, as the one and only cause of the universe, though in the idea alone, can therefore always benefit reason and can never injure it" (1781, 1787, 560).
To be useful, an assumption about what is being measured has to be made.
Although this distinction has proved useful the assumption that cattle arriving at slaughterhouses enter the food or feed chain may not be the case for a small proportion of cattle that arrive at the slaughterhouse.
If specific hypotheses regarding differences between participants are of interest, it is possible to test interactions with participants; however, for most analyses, participant as a main effect will be a useful simplifying assumption.
For future use of the AHUM, it may be useful to make assumptions a priori as to the assignment of utilities to this domain.
