Behavioral Variability of Choices versus Structural Inconsistency of Preferences

Autor/inn/en	Regenwetter, Michel; Davis-Stober, Clintin P.
Titel	Behavioral Variability of Choices versus Structural Inconsistency of Preferences
Quelle	In: Psychological Review, 119 (2012) 2, S.408-416 (9 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0033-295X
DOI	10.1037/a0027372
Schlagwörter	Mathematical Models; Decision Making; Behavioral Sciences; Validity; Interdisciplinary Approach; Theories; Mathematics Education + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Mathematical model; Mathematisches Modell; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Gültigkeit; Fächerübergreifender Unterricht; Fächerverbindender Unterricht; Interdisziplinarität; Theory; Theorie; Mathematische Bildung
Abstract	Theories of rational choice often make the structural consistency assumption that every decision maker's binary strict preference among choice alternatives forms a "strict weak order". Likewise, the very concept of a "utility function" over lotteries in normative, prescriptive, and descriptive theory is mathematically equivalent to strict weak order preferences over those lotteries, while intransitive heuristic models violate such weak orders. Using new quantitative interdisciplinary methodologies, we dissociate the variability of choices from the structural inconsistency of preferences. We show that laboratory choice behavior among stimuli of a classical "intransitivity" paradigm is, in fact, consistent with variable strict weak order preferences. We find that decision makers act in accordance with a restrictive mathematical model that, for the behavioral sciences, is extraordinarily parsimonious. Our findings suggest that the best place to invest future behavioral decision research is not in the development of new "intransitive" decision models but rather in the specification of parsimonious models consistent with strict weak order(s), as well as heuristics and other process models that explain why preferences appear to be weakly ordered. (Contains 8 footnotes, 1 table, and 1 figure.) (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org/publications
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10