THE SOCIAL THEORY OF CHOICE: FROM SIMON AND KAHNEMAN-TVERSKY TO GGT MODELLING OF SOCIALLY CONTEXTUALIZED DECISION SITUATIONS

• Authors: Burns Tom R. , Roszkowska Ewa
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this article, the authors show several of the links between the social theory of judgment and choice, which is an integral part of generalized game theory (GGT), and the seminal work of Herbert Simon (1955; 1956; 1967) and Daniel Tversky and Amos Kahneman (1974; 1981). Although Simon and Tversky and Kahneman made occasional references to 'norms' and the social situation, neither of the approaches particularly recognized or stressed the social conditions of judgment and choice. Social institutional and role concepts as well as 'sacrality' and human passions were basically alien ideas (although Simon (1967) wrote an important paper on emotions and choice). Such social science concepts are part and parcel of social choice theory (a core part of GGT). This short paper cannot fully elaborate on all of these matters. The authors limit themselves on a few 'social facts' that play a critical role in human judgment and choice. It presents applications elaborating on the Simon and Tversky and Kahneman conceptualizations, but also identifying important differences. This serves to define in part the generality and scope of GGT. The emphasis in this paper is on different choice models arising under different contextual conditions. The human world is characterized by a pluralism of models (but a pluralism which is finite). The article provides a formulation of several distinct context-dependent choice models - in this sense, it is a generative theory - distinguishable in terms of the properties of elementary judgment and judgment modalities. Some models represent classical determinate decision theory with full quantification and commensurability of evaluative judgments; and the principle of the maximization of expected value (or utility) is applied to choice and decisions. Other models involve judgments which are quantified or non-quantified but not commensurable and integratable and where actors apply special algorithms of multi-criteria decision-making. Still other models involve non-quantification and noncommensurability but partial ordering of value judgments on diverse dimensions with actors using particular algorithms to make judgments and reach choices. In general, this paper applies GGT in the spirit of Simon and Tversky and Kahneman to multi-value (multi-criteria) choice as a part of complex decision-making processes. The paper provides illustrations of several new types of choice models.

Keywords

EN

MULTI-VALUE CHOICE; PLURALISM OF MODELS; SOCIAL CHOICE THEORY

Discipline

• ECONOMICS: ECONOMICS

• Journal: Optimum. Studia Ekonomiczne
• Year: 2008
• Issue: 3(39)
• Pages: 3-44
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Burns Tom R.

author

Roszkowska Ewa

• Tom R. Burns, Center for Environmental Research and Policy, Stanford University (for postal address contact the journal editor)

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09PLAAAA06621