IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joecth/v76y2023i2d10.1007_s00199-022-01466-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Individual choice under social influence

Author

Listed:
  • Yusufcan Demirkan

    (New York University)

  • Boyao Li

    (New York University)

Abstract

Individual decision makers (DMs) are often influenced by their social environment when making choices. In this paper, we propose a simple choice-theoretic model to take into account the impact of social groups on individual decision making. First, we define a notion of socially acceptable alternatives by a particular social group from an arbitrary menu, which is analogous to indifference sets in consumer theory. We then proceed to study two potential scenarios in which a DM’s choices are distorted by social influence. While social groups serve as tie-breakers in the first case, in the second case they become more influential in shaping DM’s preferences in conformity to its own social preferences. Thus, the two scenarios we discuss could be seen as two extreme cases of social influence on individual choices. In each case, characterization theorems are provided to identify choice correspondences that satisfy our models. Some of our axioms are extensions of classic axioms. Thus, the characterization theorems also show what choice behaviors these axioms describe when adapted to the context of social influence on individual decision making.

Suggested Citation

  • Yusufcan Demirkan & Boyao Li, 2023. "Individual choice under social influence," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 76(2), pages 585-606, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:joecth:v:76:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s00199-022-01466-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s00199-022-01466-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00199-022-01466-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00199-022-01466-w?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Abhinash Borah & Christopher Kops, 2018. "Choice via Social Influence," Working Papers 1010, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    2. Chaim Fershtman & Uzi Segal, 2018. "Preferences and Social Influence," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 124-142, August.
    3. Abhinash Borah & Christopher Kops, 2018. "Choice via Social Influence," Working Papers 06, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    4. Yuval Salant & Ariel Rubinstein, 2008. "(A, f): Choice with Frames -super-1," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(4), pages 1287-1296.
    5. Cuhadaroglu, Tugce, 2017. "Choosing on influence," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(2), May.
    6. Weibin Han & Adrian Deemen, 2019. "A refinement of the uncovered set in tournaments," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 86(1), pages 107-121, February.
    7. Eliaz, Kfir & Ok, Efe A., 2006. "Indifference or indecisiveness? Choice-theoretic foundations of incomplete preferences," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 61-86, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chambers, Christopher P. & Masatlioglu, Yusufcan & Turansick, Christopher, 2024. "Correlated choice," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 19(3), July.
      • Christopher P. Chambers & Yusufcan Masatlioglu & Christopher Turansick, 2021. "Correlated Choice," Papers 2103.05084, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2023.
    2. Manzini, Paola & Mariotti, Marco & Tyson, Christopher J., 2016. "Partial knowledge restrictions on the two-stage threshold model of choice," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 41-47.
    3. Abhinash Borah & Christopher Kops, 2019. "Rational choices: an ecological approach," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 86(3), pages 401-420, May.
    4. Heller, Yuval, 2012. "Justifiable choice," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 375-390.
    5. Eddie Dekel & Barton L. Lipman, 2010. "How (Not) to Do Decision Theory," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 257-282, September.
    6. Manzini, Paola & Mariotti, Marco & Tyson, Christopher J, 2015. "Partial Knowledge Restrictions on theTwo-Stage Threshold Model of Choice," 2007 Annual Meeting, July 29-August 1, 2007, Portland, Oregon TN 2015-58, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    7. Chaim Fershtman & Uzi Segal, 2020. "Social Influence in Legal Deliberations," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 999, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 12 Sep 2021.
    8. Georgios, Gerasimou, 2013. "A Behavioural Model of Choice in the Presence of Decision Conflict," SIRE Discussion Papers 2013-25, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    9. Manzini, Paola & Mariotti, Marco & Tyson, Christopher J., 2016. "Partial knowledge restrictions on the two-stage threshold model of choice," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 41-47.
    10. Paola Manzini & Marco Mariotti, 2015. "State dependent choice," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 45(2), pages 239-268, September.
    11. Yazdanabad, Hadi Pahlevan, 2024. "Justification within and between social contexts with the possibility of choice deferral," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    12. Kops, Christopher, 2022. "Cluster-shortlisted choice," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    13. Juan Lleras & Yusufcan Masatlioglu & Daisuke Nakajima & Erkut Ozbay, 2021. "Path-Independent Consideration," Games, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, March.
    14. van Hees, Martin & Jitendranath, Akshath & Luttens, Roland Iwan, 2021. "Choice functions and hard choices," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    15. Gerasimou, Georgios, 2012. "Asymmetric Dominance, Deferral and Status Quo Bias in a Theory of Choice with Incomplete Preferences," MPRA Paper 40097, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Chaim Fershtman & Uzi Segal, 2024. "Social influence in committee deliberation," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 96(2), pages 185-207, March.
    17. Manzini, Paola & Mariotti, Marco & Tyson, Christopher J., 2016. "Partial knowledge restrictions on the two-stage threshold model of choice," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 41-47.
    18. Nail Kashaev & Natalia Lazzati, 2019. "Peer Effects in Random Consideration Sets," Papers 1904.06742, arXiv.org, revised May 2021.
    19. Ghosal, Sayantan & Dalton, Patricio, 2013. "Characterizing Behavioral Decisions with Choice Data," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 107, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    20. Cosimo Munari, 2020. "Multi-utility representations of incomplete preferences induced by set-valued risk measures," Papers 2009.04151, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bounded rationality; Social choice; Top-cycle; Preference; Framing effect; Social influence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations

    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:spr:joecth:v:76:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s00199-022-01466-w. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.