The study aimed to test the potential of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in combination with electrodermal activity (EDA) in a decision paradigm by means of the Columbia Card Task ...(CCT). The CCT is a dynamic decision task characterized by assessing subjects’ risk-taking via eliciting voluntary stopping points in a series of incrementally increasingly risky choices. Using the combined fNIRS-EDA approach, we aim to examine the hemodynamic and affective correlates of both decision and outcome responses during performance on the CCT. Twenty healthy subjects completed the Cold and Hot CCT version while fNIRS over prefrontal cortex and EDA were recorded. Results showed that (1) in the decision phase fNIRS revealed larger total hemoglobin concentration changes tHb in the Cold as compared to the Hot CCT, whereas EDA revealed an opposite pattern with larger skin conductance responses (SCRs) to the Hot as compared to the Cold CCT. (2) No significant tHb signals or SCRs were found in the outcome phase. (3) Coherence calculations between fNIRS and EDA in the heart rate frequency showed a significant increase during the Hot as compared to the Cold CCT. Our findings designate fNIRS as suitable tool for monitoring decision-making processes. The combination of fNIRS and EDA demonstrates the potential of simultaneously assessing the interaction between hemodynamic and affective responses which can provide additional information concerning the relationship between these two physiological systems for various research areas.
Real-world institutions dealing with social dilemma situations are based on mechanisms that are rarely implemented without flaw. Usually real-world mechanisms are noisy and imprecise, that is, which ...we call 'fuzzy'. We therefore conducted a novel type of voluntary contributions experiment where we test a mechanism by varying its fuzziness. We focus on a range of fuzzy mechanisms we call 'meritocratic matching'. These mechanisms generalize the mechanism of 'contribution-based competitive grouping', and their basic function is to group players based on their contribution choices—i.e. high contributors with high contributors, and low contributors with low contributors. Theory predicts the following efficiency-equality tradeoff as a function of the mechanism's inherent fuzziness: high levels of fiizziness should lead to maximal inefficiency, but perfect equality; decreasing fuzziness is predicted to improve efficiency, but at the cost of growing inequality. The main finding of our experimental investigation is that, contrary to tradeoff predictions, less fuzziness increases both efficiency and equality. In fact, these unambiguous welfare gains are partially realized already at levels where the mechanism is too fuzzy for any high-efficiency outcome to even be a Nash equilibrium.
To study coordination in complex social systems such as financial markets, the authors introduce a new prediction market set-up that accounts for fundamental uncertainty. Nonetheless, the market is ...designed so that its total value is known, and thus its rationality can be evaluated. In two experiments, the authors observe that quick consensus emerges early yielding pronounced mispricing, which however does not show the standard 'bubble-and-crash'. The set-up is implemented within the xYotta collaborative platform (https://xyotta.com). xYotta's functionality offers a large number of extensions of various complexity such as running several parallel markets with the same or different users, as well as collaborative project development in which projects undergo the equivalent of an IPO (initial public offering) and whose subsequent trading matches the role of financial markets in determining value. xYotta is thus offered to researchers as an open source software for the broad investigation of complex systems with human participants.
In terms of role assignment and informational characteristics, different contexts have been used when measuring distributional preferences. This could be problematic as contextual variance may ...inadvertently muddle the measurement process. We use a within-subjects design and systemically vary role assignment as well as the way information is displayed to subjects when measuring distributional preferences in resource allocation tasks as well as proper games. Specifically we examine choice behavior in the contexts of role certainty, role uncertainty, decomposed games, and matrix games. Results show that there is large heterogeneity in the choices people make when deciding how to allocate resources between themselves and some other person under different contextual frames. For instance, people make more prosocial choices under role uncertainty as compared to role certainty. Furthermore, altering the way information is displayed given a particular situation can have a more dramatic effect on choice behavior than altering the situation itself. That is, depending on how information is displayed, people may behave as if they would perform a non-strategic decision making task when in fact they are playing a proper game characterized by strategic interdependence.
Objective To determine whether presenting delivery room management options as defaults influences decisions to resuscitate extremely premature infants. Materials and methods Adult volunteers ...recruited from the world wide web were randomised to receive either resuscitation or comfort care as the delivery room management default option for a hypothetical delivery of a 23-week gestation infant. Participants were required to check a box to opt out of the default. The primary outcome measure was the proportion of respondents electing resuscitation. Data were analysed using χ2 tests and multivariate logistic regression. Results Participants who were told the delivery room management default option was resuscitation were more likely to opt for resuscitation (OR 6.54 95% CI 3.85 to 11.11, p<0.001). This effect persisted on multivariate regression analysis (OR 7.00, 95% CI 3.97 to 12.36, p<0.001). Female gender, being married or in a committed relationship, being highly religious, experiences with prematurity, and favouring sanctity of life were significantly associated with decisions to resuscitate. Discussion Presenting delivery room options for extremely premature infants as defaults exert a significant effect on decision makers. The information structure of the choice task may act as a subtle form of manipulation. Further, this effect may operate in ways that a decision maker is not aware of and this raises questions of patient autonomy. Conclusion Presenting delivery room options for extremely premature infants as defaults may compromise autonomous decision-making.
Interactive preferences Nax, Heinrich H.; Murphy, Ryan O.; Ackermann, Kurt A.
Economics letters,
10/2015, Letnik:
135
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Game theory presumes that agents have unique preference orderings over outcomes that prescribe unique preference orderings over actions in response to other players’ actions, independent of other ...players’ preferences. This independence assumption is necessary to permit game-theoretic best response reasoning, but at odds with introspection, because preferences toward one another often dynamically depend on each other. In this note, we propose a model of interactive preferences. The model is validated with data from a laboratory experiment. The main finding of our study is that pro-sociality diminishes over the course of the interactions.
•A game-theoretic model of socially interactive preferences is proposed.•Individuals’ concerns for one another dynamically and reciprocally depend on each other.•The interactions of preferences are tested experimentally.•On average, pro-sociality is shown to diminish over time and across experiments.
Social preferences like social value orientation are considered a promising solution to social dilemmas, such as mitigating anthropogenic climate change. However, evidence on the relationship between ...social preferences and environmental concerns is mixed, possibly because these constructs have commonly been measured by distinct methods that do not facilitate direct comparisons. We address this gap by introducing an incentivized preference-based measurement approach, extending a subject’s concerns for the wellbeing of others to a subject’s willingness to support environmental and humanitarian endeavors, based on a simple social preferences utility function. In this measurement approach, subjects make resource allocation choices with real consequences and the design ensures comparability of different revealed preferences (i.e., people’s willingness to make tradeoffs between themselves and others via donations to NGOs supporting different environmental and social causes). We then use this measurement method in an exploratory fashion to consistently assess preferences for environmental and humanitarian concerns in a laboratory experiment. We find that social and environmental value orientations are robustly interrelated, and further that people are generally more willing to pay to benefit people in need, compared to abstract environmental causes. We conclude that interventions to nudge people towards proenvironmental behavior will have a greater impact if human suffering resulting from global climate change is made more salient.
Many real-world mechanisms are 'noisy' or 'fuzzy', that is the institutions in place to implement them operate with non-negligible degrees of imprecision and error. This observation raises the more ...general question of whether mechanisms that work in theory are also robust to more realistic assumptions such as noise. In this paper, in the context of voluntary contribution games, we focus on a mechanism known as 'contribution-based competitive grouping'. First, we analyze how the mechanism works under noise and what happens when other assumptions such as population homogeneity are relaxed. Second, we investigate the welfare properties of the mechanism, interpreting noise as a policy instrument, and we use logit dynamic simulations to formulate mechanism design recommendations.
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