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Contribution Details

Type Working Paper
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Does choice change preference?
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Carlos Alos-Ferrer
  • Georg Granic
Language
  • English
Institution University of Zurich
Series Name SSRN
Number 3229632
ISSN 1556-5068
Number of Pages 10
Date 2018
Abstract Text Do choices feed back into and alter preferences? Widespread evidence arising in psychology and neuroscience shows that preferences change in response to own choices, a phenomenon typically explained through cognitive dissonance. The evidence, however, presents serious shortcomings casting doubts on its relevance for economics. We present two experiments addressing these shortcomings. First, participants made standard decisions under risk rather than facing unfamiliar alternatives. Second, all choices were incentivized. Third, our novel experimental design avoids recently-exposed problems of experiments in psychology. The results show unsystematic effects which differ from and challenge conventional wisdom outside economics.
Official URL https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3229632
Digital Object Identifier 10.2139/ssrn.3229632
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Keywords Preference change, stability of preferences, construction of preference