Exotic Preferences Behavioral Economics and Human Motivation

by Loewenstein, George

• ISBN13: 9780199257072
• ISBN10: 0199257078
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-09-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

George Loewenstein is one of the pioneers of the rapidly growing field of behavioral economics. For over twenty years he has been working at the intersection of economics and psychology and is one of the few people of whom it can be said that their work is equally respected and well knownwithin both disciplines. This book brings together a selection of his papers focusing on what he calls "exotic preferences"-- the disparate motives that drive human behavior. In addition to covering the history and methodology of behavioral economics, they also touch on a wide range of fascinatingtopics such as the motives that drive extreme athletes, our propensity to want to get unpleasant experiences out of the way so we can focus on the more pleasant, and the psychology of curiosity. There are also papers on social preferences, discussing the importance of perceptions of fairness ininterpersonal interactions, intertemporal choice-- the tradeoffs between costs and benefits occurring at different points in time-- and the impact of emotion on economic decision making. An original introduction outlines Loewenstein's general approach to research, and there are short introductionsto each paper outlining briefly when, how and why they came to be written, providing a fascinating and vivid insight into the process of intellectual creativity.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
General Perspectives, History, and Methods
Because It Is There: The Challenge of Mountaineering ... for Utility Theory	p. 3
The Economics of Meaning	p. 33
The Fall and Rise of Psychological Explanations in the Economics of Intertemporal Choice	p. 55
Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist	p. 87
Experimental Economics form the Vantage-Point of Behavioural Economics	p. 107
The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review and Reinterpretation	p. 121
Social Preferences
Social Utility and Decision Making in Interpersonal Contexts	p. 181
Explaining the Bargaining Impasse: The Role of Self-Serving Biases	p. 215
Basic Research on Preferences
Preference Reversals Between Joint and Separate Evaluations of Options: A Review and Theoretical Analysis	p. 241
"Coherent Arbitrariness": Stable Demand Curves without Stable Preferences	p. 279
Predicting Tastes and Feelings
A Bias in the Prediction of Tastes	p. 313
Mispredicting the Endowment Effect: Underestimation of Owners' Selling Prices by Buyers' Agents	p. 325
Projection Bias in Predicting Future Utility	p. 345
Intertemporal Choice
Anticipation and the Valuation of Delayed Consumption	p. 385
Anomalies in Intertemporal Choice: Evidence and an Interpretation	p. 411
Preferences for Sequences of Outcomes	p. 439
The Red and the Black: Mental Accounting of Savings and Debt	p. 481
Emotions
Out of Control: Visceral Influences on Behavior	p. 523
Risk as Feelings	p. 565
Investment Behavior and the Negative Side of Emotion	p. 613
Heart Strings and Purse Strings: Carryover Effects of Emotions on Economic Decisions	p. 625
Separate Neural Systems Value Immediate and Delayed Monetary Rewards	p. 637
Index	p. 651
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