Risky social choice with incomplete or noisy interpersonal comparisons of well-being

In this study, we develop a model of social choice over lotteries, where people’s psychological characteristics are mutable, their preferences may be incomplete, and incomplete or noisy interpersonal comparisons of well-being are possible. Formally, we suppose individual preferences are described by a von Neumann-Morgenstern (vNM) preference order on a space of lotteries over psychophysical states; the social planner must construct a vNM preference order on lotteries over social states. First, we consider a model where the individual vNM preference order is incomplete (so not all interpersonal comparisons are possible). Then, we consider a model where the individual vNM preference order is complete, but unknown to the planner, and thus modelled by a random variable. In both cases, we obtain characterizations of a utilitarian social welfare function.     

ASYMMETRIC VALUATION OF GAINS AND LOSSES AND PREFERENCE ORDER ASSUMPTIONS

Recent findings of large differences between people's valuations of gains and losses imply that the common preference order axioms of completeness, transitivity, and dominance, on which economic analyses and predictions of consumer behavior are largely based, may not be consistent with actual choices. This paper reports the results of an experimental test of the preference order assumptions using real exchanges of two goods and money. The findings show consistent differences in the valuation placed on goods and money depending on whether the entitlements are being acquired or given up, and provide direct evidence of preference assumption violations.     

On representation of monotone preference orders in a sequence space

In this paper we investigate the relation between scalar continuity and representability of monotone preference orders in a sequence space. Scalar continuity is shown to be sufficient for representability of a monotone preference order and easy to verify in concrete examples. Generalizing this result, we show that a condition, which restricts the extent of scalar discontinuity of a monotone preference order, ensures representability. We relate this condition to the well-known order dense property, which is both necessary and sufficient for representability.     

On the representation of preference orders on sequence spaces

A set of sufficient conditions for representability of preference orders on real sequence spaces is analyzed. In particular, monotonicity and continuity of the order is not assumed. Two applications are worked out to demonstrate how such a result might be useful.     

One male offspring preference: evidence from Vietnam using a split-population model

This paper examines sex preferences for children in Vietnam using the mother birth cohort from 1972 to 1993. We specify the full set for sex–birth order composition of existing children using a split-population model. The model relaxes the assumption in conventional hazard models that all mothers would eventually have another child. Our results indicate a preference in these families for one male offspring. In addition, we observe a mixed sex preference at the fourth birth order. We also establish that a one-square-meter increase in household living area, as a proxy for the increment in household wealth, is associated with a 0.997 times lower preference for a son for the second childbirth, but a 1.015 and 1.014 times higher preference for a son for the third and fourth childbirths, respectively. As long as two-child families dominate the population structure, these results suggest that the importance placed on economic reasons for a son preference will gradually weaken as economic development proceeds in Vietnam.     

A characterization of the single-peaked domain

We provide in this paper two properties that are both necessary and sufficient to characterize the domain of single-peaked preference profiles. This characterization allows for a definition of single-peaked preference profiles without using an ad hoc underlying order of the alternatives and also sheds light on the structure of single-peaked profiles. Considering the larger domain of value-restricted preference profiles (Sen, Econometrica 34:491–499, 1966) we also provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a preference profile to be single-caved or group-separable. Our results show that for single-peaked, single-caved and group-separable profiles it is sufficient to restrict to profiles containing of either three individuals and three alternatives or two individuals and four alternatives.     

The Borda count and agenda manipulation

A standard objection to the Borda count, as an actual voting procedure, is that it is subject to agenda manipulation. The classical example is the introduction, in order to favour a candidate or option y, of a new option z ranked on every voter's preference scale immediately below y; y may as a result obtain the highest Borda count, although, if z had not been introduced, a different option would have done so. Strategic use of this device is not greatly to be feared, but it does point to a defect in the system: equating the distance on each voter's preference scale between any option and the next imposes a penalty for dissimilarity. The corrective is to vary the distances by introducing a measure of dissimilarity, as perceived by the voters and revealed by their preference scales. Two possible ways of doing this are described, yielding revised and adjusted Borda scores. It is shown by examples that these will often, but not always, undo the `agenda manipulation' effect, and questioned whether it is desirable to undo it altogether. Received: 22 August 1996/Accepted: 31 October 1996     

Face Preferences for Infant‐ and Adult‐Directed Speakers in Infants of Depressed and Nondepressed Mothers: Association with Infant Cognitive Development

Face preferences for speakers of infant‐directed and adult‐directed speech (IDS and ADS) were investigated in 4‐ to 13.5‐month‐old infants of depressed and nondepressed mothers. Following 1 min of exposure to an ID or AD speaker (order counterbalanced), infants had an immediate paired‐comparison test with a still, silent image of the familiarized versus a novel face. In the test phase, ID face preference ratios were significantly lower in infants of depressed than nondepressed mothers. Infants' ID face preference ratios, but not AD face preference ratios, correlated with their percentile scores on the cognitive (Cog) scale of the Bayley Scales of Infant & Toddler Development (3rd Edition; BSID‐III), assessed concurrently. Regression analyses revealed that infant ID face preferences significantly predicted infant Cog percentiles even after demographic risk factors and maternal depression had been controlled. Infants may use IDS to select social partners who are likely to support and facilitate cognitive development.     

Loneliness,social support,and preference for online social interaction: the mediating effects of identity experimentation online among children and adolescents

This study explores the practices of online social activities among children and adolescents in order to uncover the connections between preferences for online social interaction and loneliness, social support, and the mediating effect of identity experimentation online. Data were gathered from a random sample of 718 youngsters aged 9 to 19. Analyses revealed that individuals who are lonely and have a lower level of offline social support find opportunities for identity experimentation online more gratifying than those who are less lonely or not lonely. Both loneliness and social support offline were found significantly related to preference for online social interaction, but the relationships were mediated by identity experimentation online. Finally, it was found that age differences exist. In particular, individuals aged 9 to 14 who are lonely and those aged 15 to 19 with little social support show a significant preference for online social interaction. Implications for future research into identity experimentation online and social relationship are discussed.     

Receptive Grammatical Knowledge of Familiar Content Words and Inflection in 16‐Month‐Olds

This study examines 16‐month‐olds' understanding of word order and inflectional properties of familiar nouns and verbs. Infants preferred grammatical sentences over ungrammatical sentences when the ungrammaticality was cued by both misplaced inflection and word order reversal of nouns and verbs. Infants were also sensitive to inflection alone as a cue to grammaticality, but not word order alone. The preference for grammatical sentence forms was also disrupted when adjacent function word cues were removed from the stimuli, and when familiar content words were replaced by nonce words. These results suggest that sensitivity to the relationship between functional morphemes and content words, rather than sensitivity to either independently, drives the development of early grammatical knowledge. Furthermore, infants showed some ability to generalize from familiar to nonce content word contexts.     

On the multi-preference approach to evaluating opportunities

The purpose of the paper is to provide a general framework for analyzing “preference for opportunities.” Based on two simple axioms a fundamental result due to Kreps is used in order to represent rankings of opportunity sets in terms of multiple preferences. The paper provides several refinements of the basic representation theorem. In particular, a condition of “closedness under compromise” is suggested in order to distinguish the flexibility interpretation of the model from normative interpretations which play a crucial role in justifying the intrinsic value of opportunities. Moreover, the paper clarifies the link between the multiple preference approach and the “choice function” approach to evaluating opportunities. In particular, it is shown how the well-known Aizerman/Malishevski result on rationalizability of choice functions can be obtained as a corollary from the more general multiple preference representation of a ranking of opportunity sets. Received: 3 September 1996 / Accepted: 18 August 1997     

Der Einfluss von people pattern auf die Präferenz für die Gestaltung innerbetrieblicher Diagramme – eine empirische Studie

This paper proofs the impact of the identity in terms of certain not yet scientifically analysed cognitive filters (people pattern) to graphical and visual preferences of human being. Some items based on a people pattern questionnaire have been extracted in order to build up people pattern profiles that maintain people’s chart-type preference. That approach aims the identity driven prediction of the preferred chart-type, used for special business purposes to ease graphical interaction. This model can be used to include the auditor’s visual preferences already in the design process of business charts.     

A characterization of the single-crossing domain

We characterize single-crossing preference profiles in terms of two forbidden substructures, one of which contains three voters and six (not necessarily distinct) alternatives, and one of which contains four voters and four (not necessarily distinct) alternatives. We also provide an efficient way to decide whether a preference profile is single-crossing.     

Effects of differential reinforcement and rules with feedback on preference for choice and verbal reports

We evaluated the effects of differential reinforcement and accurate verbal rules with feedback on the preference for choice and the verbal reports of 6 adults. Participants earned points on a probabilistic schedule by completing the terminal links of a concurrent-chains arrangement in a computer-based game of chance. In free-choice terminal links, participants selected 3 numbers from an 8-number array; in restricted-choice terminal links participants selected the order of 3 numbers preselected by a computer program. A pop-up box then informed the participants if the numbers they selected or ordered matched or did not match numbers generated by the computer but not displayed; matching in a trial resulted in one point earned. In baseline sessions, schedules of reinforcement were equal across free- and restricted-choice arrangements and a running tally of points earned was shown each trial. The effects of differentially reinforcing restricted-choice selections were evaluated using a reversal design. For 4 participants, the effects of providing a running tally of points won by arrangement and verbal rules regarding the schedule of reinforcement were also evaluated using a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline-across-participants design. Results varied across participants but generally demonstrated that (a) preference for choice corresponded more closely to verbal reports of the odds of winning than to reinforcement schedules, (b) rules and feedback were correlated with more accurate verbal reports, and (c) preference for choice corresponded more highly to the relative number of reinforcements obtained across free- and restricted-choice arrangements in a session than to the obtained probability of reinforcement or to verbal reports of the odds of winning.     

Self-control exertion and the expression of time preference: Experimental results from Ethiopia

Classic economic theory assumes that time preference is a stable parameter. However, a large literature in psychology theory suggests that initial exertions of self-control affect one’s ability to deploy self-control subsequently. As savings decisions require individuals to make trade-offs between immediate gratification and future rewards, the self-control literature suggests that expression of time preference is susceptible to environmental influences, a contradiction of the neoclassical stability assumption. Empirical evidence is mixed. This paper proposes that self-control use has heterogeneous effects on the expression of economic time preference. Using a Stroop task to experimentally induce self-control fatigue in university students in Northern Ethiopia, we find that treated subjects with below median finances behave more impatiently in an incentivized time preference task than do untreated subjects. By contrast, treated relatively wealthy students do not behave differently than their untreated counterparts. Our results suggest that the psychological environment does affect the expression of time preference, but self-control use does not uniformly deplete patience for all subjects. Our results are most consistent with the process model of self-control.     

Marriage Form and Son Preference in Rural China: An Investigation in Three Counties*

Abstract Using data from two surveys in three counties among which the prevalence of uxorilocal marriage varies greatly, this paper analyzes effects of marriage form, as well as individual, family, and social factors on son preference in the context of strict birth control in rural China. It is shown that, under the Chinese patrilineal joint family system, son preference can be inferred from the reproductive behavior of couples in virilocal marriage but not from that of couples in uxorilocal marriage. However, the negative effect of uxorilocal marriage on son preference is likely to depend on other factors. For all three counties, women married after the 1990s are less likely to have preference for sons; in regions with low prevalence of uxorilocal marriages, son preference is stronger for virilocally married couples with more sisters or having first birth at older age, and for couples whose marriages were arranged by others; in regions with high prevalence of uxorilocal marriages but under-developed economies, higher educated women in uxorilocal marriages have stronger son preference. Son preference differs greatly among the three counties and increased prevalence of uxorilocal marriage may significantly weaken son preference. These findings relate to changes in rural family and marriage customs during the current demographic and social transition, and suggest new approaches to weakening son preference while maintaining low fertility in rural China.     

Personality, drug preference, drug use, and drug availability

This study examined the relationship between drug preference, drug use, drug availability, and personality among individuals (n = 100) in treatment for substance abuse in an effort to replicate the results of an earlier study (Feldman, Kumar, Angelini, Pekala, & Porter, 2007) designed to test prediction derived from Eysenck's (1957, 1967) theories. Drug preference was measured by the method of paired-comparison and personality was measured with the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire-50 CC. Contrary to expectations, high compared with low scorers on Sociability and Impulsive-Sensation Seeking preferred depressants. Surprisingly, low compared with high scorers on neuroticism did not differ in preference for alcohol. As in the previous study, drug preference, use, and availability were highly correlated, although ease of availability was slightly more predictive of drug use than drug preference. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Prisoner’s Dilemma payoffs and the evolution of co-operative preferences

We analyse the evolutionary stability of a preference for reciprocity in the Prisoner’s Dilemma. A distingushing and, as we argue, plausible, feature of the analysis is that reciprocal players are not assumed to be able to coordinate on mutual cooperation with probability one. We show how two payoff conditions, one well-known and another new, then become crucial for the evolutionary stability of co-operation. Somewhat paradoxically perhaps, an altruistic preference poses a greater threat to stable cooperation than a self-interested preference.     

The State and the Associational Order of the Economy: The Institutionalization of Cartels and Trade Associations in 1931–45 Japan

The existing literature on the impact of the state on the associational order has emphasized the state's concern on the implications of the associational order to the public goods and the role of the associational order as a policy tool of the state. However, few studies have investigated what particular characters of the state shape the pattern of the associational order. Through a historical analysis, this study highlights three important factors related to the state that contributed to the the rise of the associational order in Japan during the Great Depression and World War II. First, the shift of the state preference from protecting the liberties of private enterprises toward maintaining political stability in economic crisis and controlling resource allocation in war was the ultimate driving force behind the rise of associational order. Second, the constitutional order of the Japanese state, which involves not only the organization, composition, powers, and limitation of the state's executive, legislative, and jurisdictional branches, but also the people's liberties defined by the constitution, was strongly influenced by the continental legal tradition. This structurally shaped the Japanese pattern of the associational order. Third, the institutionalized legal and economic beliefs of property rights provided ideological support to the rise of the associational order.     

Infants' Listening Preferences: Baby Talk or Happy Talk?

The most robust finding on infants' listening preferences has been widely characterized as a preference for baby talk (BT) over adult‐directed speech (ADS). Although prosodic modifications characteristic of BT also convey positive affect, differences in affect across BT and ADS speech registers have not been controlled in previous studies. This set of experiments sought to elucidate the basis for 6‐month‐olds' listening preference by independently manipulating affect and speech register. When affect was held constant, no preference for any speech register was observed. Moreover, when ADS stimuli presented more positive affect than BT stimuli, infants' preferences followed the positive affect. Higher and more variable pitch was neither necessary nor sufficient for determining infants' preferences, although pitch characteristics may modulate affect‐based preferences. The BT preference is thus attributable to a more general preference for speech that imparts relatively positive affect, a preference perhaps ascribable to a preexisting general‐purpose mechanism opportunistically exploited by language.