Testing explanations of preference reversal

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cubitt, RP; Munro, A; Starmer, C
• 署名单位: University of East Anglia; University of Nottingham
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2004.00238.x
• 发表日期: 2004
• 页码: 709-726
• 关键词: choice; CONSTRUCTION

摘要

We present a new experimental investigation of preference reversal. Although economists and psychologists have suggested a variety of accounts for this phenomenon, the existing data do not adequately discriminate between them. Relative to previous studies, our design offers enhanced control for economic explanations and new tests of psychological hypotheses. We find a pattern of preference reversals that is inconsistent with all of the best-known explanations of the phenomenon proposed by economists, with the fundamental economic assumption of context-free preferences, and with several psychological theories of preference reversal. We explore the explanatory strategies that survive exposure to our data.