While economic models often assume that actors make choices with known consequences to maximize their payoffs (like utility or profit), many real-world decisions involve uncertainty about the outcomes. Expected payoff is the crucial tool for analyzing these situations. It represents the average outcome of a decision by calculating a weighted average of all possible results, where each result's value is multiplied by its probability of occurring. By comparing the expected payoffs of different options, an economic actor can make a rational choice in any situation characterized by risk or uncertainty.