ABSTRACT Intertemporal choices (i.e., the choice between a sooner available but smaller reward and a later available but larger reward) were initially thought to reflect stable preferences for ...immediate or delayed rewards. However, recently, it has been shown that intertemporal choices are influenced by factors such as context variables and attentional processes. Here, we investigate if another factor, the choice repetition bias, affects decision making and attentional processes in intertemporal choice. The choice repetition bias is characterized by the tendency to repeat previous choices and to be slower when switching to an alternative choice. In a series of two experiments (including a preregistered, eye‐tracking study), we find that the choice repetition bias exists in intertemporal choice. We also find tentative support for an early attentional bias towards the favored attribute dimension of the previous choice; however, this effect disappears when taking the whole decision process into account. This finding raises interesting questions about the cognitive processes underlying the choice repetition bias. In addition, we successfully replicate other attentional effects from the intertemporal choice literature (e.g., more fixations on monetary dimension, gaze cascade effect).
Close friendships are associated with greater happiness and improved health; historically, they would likely have provided beneficial fitness outcomes. Yet each friendship requires one's finite time ...and resources to develop and maintain. Because people can maintain only so many close relationships, including friendships, at any one time, choosing which prospective friends to pursue and invest in is likely to have been a recurrent adaptive problem. Moreover, not all friends are created equal; some might be kind but unintelligent, some intelligent but disloyal, and so on. How might people integrate their friend preferences to make friend choices? Work using a Euclidean model of mate preferences has had significant success in elucidating this integration challenge in the domain of mating. Here, we apply this model to the domain of friendship, specifically exploring same-sex best and close friendships. We test and find some support for several critical predictions derived from a Euclidean integration hypothesis: People with higher Euclidean friend value (a) have best friends who better fulfill their best friend preferences, (b) have higher friend-value ideal best friends, and (c) have higher friend-value actual best friends. We also (d) replicate existing similar findings with regard to mating and (e) additionally provide a first test of whether people's Euclidean friend value (versus mate value) is a better predictor of their friend outcomes, and vice versa, finding some, albeit mixed, support for the dissocialbility of these constructs.
•Data provide first support for a Euclidean integration hypothesis in friend choice.•People with high friend value set higher standards for ideal friends.•People with high friend value have higher friend-value actual friends.•Friend (vs. mate) value may better predict friend outcomes and vice versa.•We replicate findings testing a Euclidean integration hypothesis in mate choice.
A (deterministic) social choice correspondence F, mapping states into outcomes, is rationalizably implementable provided that there exists a mechanism such that the support of its set of ...rationalizable outcomes coincides with the set of outcomes recommended by F. We provide a necessary condition for rationalizable implementation, called r-monotonicity. This condition, when combined with some other auxiliary conditions, is also sufficient when there are at least three agents.
•Attitude and habit help to explain bicycle choice in commuting trips.•Bicycle infrastructure explains bicycle choice but only indirectly through attitude.•Familiarity and practical issues have a ...direct and an indirect effect on bicycle choice.•Habit reduces the relevance of the pro-bicycle attitude in the choice process.
New transport trends have emerged in developing countries to promote bicycling due to its individual and societal benefits. Although bicycle infrastructure provision has been one of the most utilised strategies to encourage bicycling, it has had a limited immediate impact on the bicycling modal share. Published research indicates the need to incorporate the psychosocial dimension to understand commuters' transport behaviour and explain why bicycling infrastructure usage is lower than expected. This study highlights the processes behind bicycle mode choice decisions, explicitly incorporating pro-bicycle attitudes and habits, while also considering the influence of socioeconomic, bicycle facilities and bicycling experience variables on shaping that attitude. For this purpose, an online survey was designed and sent to students, faculty members and staff of two Chilean universities to collect ad-hoc data. The modelling used an approach based on an integrated choice and latent variable model. The main findings are: attitude in itself is a relevant construct to explain behaviour; bicycling infrastructure contribute to explain bicycle choice but only indirectly through attitude; socioeconomic characteristics, bicycling familiarity and practical issues have both a direct effect on bicycle choice decision and an indirect one by fostering pro-bicycling attitudes. Additionally, results show that the explicit inclusion of habit reduces the contribution of pro-bicycle attitude in explaining bicycle choice. This might be due to interaction and reinforcement between habit and attitude.
•Propose a wireless charging lane (WCL) location model considering the WCL adverse effect.•Linearize the model with minimum error.•Test the model and solution method on two networks.•Validate the ...necessity of considering the adverse effect of WCL.
With the development of wireless charging technology, charging-while-driving now becomes possible. In this paper we propose a model to optimize the location of the wireless charging lanes (WCL) by taking into account their effects on road capacity and traveler’s route choice. The model is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem and solved by a linearization method. A new method is developed to reduce the maximum error in the linearization process. The model and solution method are tested on Nguyen-Dupuis and Sioux Falls networks. The numerical results show that relatively high charging power and reasonable budget are necessary to recover the investment when charging lanes are deployed on road network. It is also demonstrated that the impacts of WCL on road capacity drop and travelers’ route choice are not negligible, and should be considered in the determination of WCL location.
The purpose of this study was to preliminarily develop novel self-administered measures to assess nutrition security and choice in dietary characteristics. Measures were piloted in a convenience ...sample of households at risk for food insecurity in the United States. The survey included the new measures, construct validation variables (household food security, self-reported general health, and dietary variables), and demographic questions. Exploratory factor analysis was used to assess dimensionality, internal (Cronbach's alpha (CA)), and construct validity were assessed (Spearman's correlation). Multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess added utility of the new measures beyond food security measurement. Finally, brief screener versions of the full measures were created. Participants in the analytic sample (n = 380) averaged 45 years old, 71% experiencing food insecurity, 42% with high school diploma or less, 78% were women, and racially/ethnically diverse. Scores for the Household Nutrition Security (CA = 0.85; Mean = 2.58 (SD = 0.87)), Household Healthfulness Choice (CA = 0.79; Mean = 2.47 (SD = 0.96)), and Household Dietary Choice (CA = 0.80; Mean = 2.57 (SD = 0.90)) were positively associated with food security (0.401–0.657), general health (0.194–0.290), fruit and vegetable intake frequency (0.240–0.280), and “scratch-cooked” meal intake (0.328–0.350), and negatively associated with “processed” meal intake (−0.162 to −0.234) and an external locus of nutrition control (−0.343 to −0.366). Further, findings show that the new measures are useful for assessing risk for poor dietary and health outcomes even after controlling for household food security status and sample characteristics. These findings are encouraging and support reliability, construct validity, and utility of these new measures. Following further testing, such as Confirmatory Factor Analysis in future samples, these measures may be used in various applications to contribute to a better understanding of households' limitations for accessing healthful foods and foods that meet their preferences.
In neurotypical individuals, arm choice in reaching movements depends on expected biomechanical effort, expected success, and a handedness bias. Following a stroke, does arm choice change to account ...for the decreased motor performance, or does it follow a preinjury habitual preference pattern? Participants with mild-to-moderate chronic stroke who were right-handed before stroke performed reaching movements in both spontaneous and forced-choice blocks, under no-time, medium-time, and fast-time constraint conditions designed to modulate reaching success. Mixed-effects logistic regression models of arm choice revealed that expected effort predicted choices. However, expected success only strongly predicted choice in left-hemiparetic individuals. In addition, reaction times decreased in left-hemiparetic individuals between the no-time and the fast-time constraint conditions but showed no changes in right-hemiparetic individuals. Finally, arm choice in the no-time constraint condition correlated with a clinical measure of spontaneous arm use for right-, but not for left-hemiparetic individuals. Our results are consistent with the view that right-hemiparetic individuals show a habitual pattern of arm choice for reaching movements relatively independent of failures. In contrast, left-hemiparetic individuals appear to choose their paretic left arm more optimally: that is, if a movement with the paretic arm is predicted to be not successful in the upcoming movement, the nonparetic right arm is chosen instead.
Although we are seldom aware of it, we constantly make decisions to use one arm or the other in daily activities. Here, we studied whether these decisions change following stroke. Our results show that effort, success, and side of lesion determine arm choice in a reaching task: whereas left-paretic individuals modified their arm choice in response to failures in reaching the target, right-paretic individuals showed a pattern of choice independent of failures.
Based on data from the 2014 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this paper investigates the effects of financial literacy on Chinese households' portfolio choices and investment returns from the ...financial market. We find that financial literacy significantly increases households' investments in risky assets. Financial literacy may have an impact by increasing capacities to understand and compare financial assets. However, we further find that it is not necessary for all investors to have financial knowledge to gain higher investment returns from financial markets. Our results show that financial literacy increases investment returns for younger and better educated households while reducing the returns for older, less educated households.
•Financial literacy significantly increases households' investments in risky assets.•Financial literacy may have an impact by increasing capacities to understand and compare financial assets.•It is not necessary for all investors to have financial knowledge to gain higher investment returns.•Financial literacy increases investment returns for younger and better educated households.
•Personality traits relate to both STEM preferences and STEM specialization.•Openness and Agreeableness are the best predictors of STEM preferences.•Extraversion is the strongest predictor of actual ...choice for STEM.•Cognitive skills become more important when moving from preferences to actual choice.•There are markedly different patterns for boys compared to girls.
Around the developed world, the need for graduates from Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields is growing. Research on educational and occupational choice has traditionally focused on the cognitive skills of prospective students, and on how these determine the expected costs and benefits of study programs. Little work exists that analyzes the role of personality traits on study choice. This study investigates how personality traits relate to preferences of students for STEM studies and occupations, and to specialization choice in high school. We use a rich data set that combines administrative and survey data of Dutch secondary education students. We find that personality traits are related to both the preference that students have for STEM as the actual decision to specialize in STEM studies, but to different degrees. We identify significant relations with preference indicators for all Big Five traits, especially for Openness to Experience (positive), Extraversion and Agreeableness (both negative). The size of these relations is often larger than those between cognitive skills and STEM preferences. Personality traits are comparatively less important with respect to the actual specialization choice, for which we identify a robust (and sizable) negative relation with Extraversion, and for girls find a positive relation with Openness to Experience. The results suggest that once students have to make actual study choice decisions, they rely more on cognitive skills rather than personality traits, in contrast to their expressed preferences.
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