IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v112y2022i7p2237-68.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When Choices Are Mistakes

Author

Listed:
  • Kirby Nielsen
  • John Rehbeck

Abstract

Using a laboratory experiment, we identify whether decision-makers consider it a mistake to violate canonical choice axioms. To do this, we incentivize subjects to report axioms they want their decisions to satisfy. Then, subjects make lottery choices which might conflict with their axiom preferences. In instances of conflict, we give subjects the opportunity to re-evaluate their decisions. We find that many individuals want to follow canonical axioms and revise their choices to be consistent with the axioms. In a shorter online experiment, we show correlations of mistakes with response times and measures of cognition.

Suggested Citation

  • Kirby Nielsen & John Rehbeck, 2022. "When Choices Are Mistakes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(7), pages 2237-2268, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:112:y:2022:i:7:p:2237-68
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.20201550
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20201550
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E164661V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20201550.appx
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20201550.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aer.20201550?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Almog & Romain Gauriot & Lionel Page & Daniel Martin, 2024. "AI Oversight and Human Mistakes: Evidence from Centre Court," Papers 2401.16754, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    2. Christoph Kuzmics & Brian W. Rogers & Xiannong Zhang, 2024. "Randomization advice and ambiguity aversion," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 69(1), pages 85-104, August.
    3. Feri, Francesco & Gantner, Anita & Moffatt, Peter G. & Erharter, Dominik, 2022. "Leading to efficient coordination: Individual traits, beliefs and choices in the minimum effort game," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 403-427.
    4. Ozan Çakır & İbrahim Gürler & Bora Gündüzyeli, 2022. "Analysis of a Non-Discriminating Criterion in Simple Additive Weighting Deep Hierarchy," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(17), pages 1-22, September.
    5. Bernheim, B. Douglas & Sprenger, Charles, 2023. "On the empirical validity of cumulative prospect theory: A response to the Wakker commentaries," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    6. Willadsen, Helene & Zaccagni, Sarah & Piovesan, Marco & Wengström, Erik, 2024. "Measures of cognitive ability and choice inconsistency," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 495-506.
    7. Gärtner, Florian & Semmler, Darwin & Bannier, Christina E., 2023. "What could possibly go wrong? Predictable misallocation in simple debt repayment experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 28-43.
    8. Lohse, Johannes & Rahal, Rima-Maria & Schulte-Mecklenbeck, Michael & Sofianos, Andis & Wollbrant, Conny, 2024. "Investigations of decision processes at the intersection of psychology and economics," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    9. Meng, Jingyi & Webb, Craig S. & Zank, Horst, 2024. "Mixture independence foundations for expected utility," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    10. Guilhem Lecouteux & Ivan Mitrouchev, 2023. "The view from Manywhere : normative economics with context-dependent preferences," Post-Print hal-04551021, HAL.
    11. Steven J. Humphrey & Nadia-Yasmine Kruse, 2024. "Who accepts Savage’s axiom now?," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 96(1), pages 1-17, February.
    12. Leo Chi U Seak & Simone Ferrari-Toniolo & Ritesh Jain & Kirby Nielsen & Wolfram Schultz, 2023. "Systematic comparison of risky choices in humans and monkeys," Working Papers 202316, University of Liverpool, Department of Economics.
    13. Zachary Breig & Paul Feldman, 2024. "Revealing risky mistakes through revisions," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 68(3), pages 227-254, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:112:y:2022:i:7:p:2237-68. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.