#prompt | #ergodic > **Expected utility theory**, a dominant framework in economics, essentially assumes that people make decisions under uncertainty by averaging out over possible future outcomes, as if these outcomes could be treated in a manner similar to the ergodic hypothesis. That is, it assumes that the time averages of economic agents' decisions (how they behave over time) can be replaced by **probabilistic averages** (expectations of future outcomes), much like in equilibrium statistical mechanics.