Choice Behavior in Everyday Life: Rules, Outcomes, and Modifications

摘要 这项研究旨在支持几个 日常生活中的选择行为。 (1)那里 是关于选择的规则中的个体差异， 差异与不同的生活结果有关。 (2)的 与优选结果相关联的规则是奠定的， 标准成本效益规则的直观版本， 微观经济理论 (3)这些外行版本的成本效益 规则可以是高度抽象的，因为它们适用于 非常广泛的内容领域。 (4)的含意 成本效益规则抽象、独立于领域的性质是 他们可以被有效地教授， 作为抽象的规则系统和规则系统， 一个特定的领域会自发地推广到其他领域， 域. (5)因此，应该有可能教成本- 以有效的方式造福人民，改善人民生活 结果。 这项研究计划也将开始探索性工作 试图找出解决问题的策略， 行为可能在成本收益规则的知识之间起中介作用 和上级选择结果。 这项工作具有描述性和规范性的影响 理论和实践意义。 主要含义 对于描述性理论来说，高度抽象的规则， 主要研究者及其同事所表现出的水平， 中介推理，也中介选择行为。 规范性 贡献将是增加经验数据，以目前 成本效益规则所使用纯粹基于经验的断言 改善结果。 主要的实际影响是， 它可能会被证明是有可能改善个人和 职业生活的结果，相对少量的 指导-大大低于表征一门课程， 微观经济学

ABSTRACT This research is intended to show support for several propositions about choice behavior in everyday life. (1) There are individual differnces in rules concerning choice, and these differences are associated with different life outcomes. (2) The rules that are associated with preferable outcomes are lay, intuitive versions of the normative cost-benefit rules of microeconomic theory. (3) These lay versions of cost-benefit rules can be highly abstract, in that they apply across an extremely broad range of content domains. (4) An implication of the abstract, domain independent nature of cost-benefit rules is that they can be taught quite effectively, with small amounts of instruction, both as abstract rule systems and as rule systems in a particular domain that will spontaneously generalize to other domains. (5) Therefore it should be possible to teach cost- benefit rules in an efficient fashion and improve people's life outcomes. This research program will also begin exploratory work attempting to find out what problem-solving strategies and behaviors might mediate between knowledge of cost-benefit rules and superior choice outcomes. This work has implications for descriptive and normative theory as well as practical implications. The major implication for descriptive theory would be that highly abstract rules, at a level shown by the Principal Investigator and his colleagues to mediate inference, also mediate choice behavior. The normative contribution would be to add empirical data to the currently purely mathematically-based assertion that cost-benefit rule use improves outcomes. The major practical implication would be that it may turn out to be possible to improve both personal and professional life outcomes with relatively small amounts of instruction -- substantially less than characterizes a course in microeconomics.