Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of symbols
- I Physics concepts in social science? A discussion
- II Mathematics and physics preliminaries
- III Quantum probabilistic effects in psychology: basic questions and answers
- 7 A brief overview
- 8 Interference effects in psychology – an introduction
- 9 A quantum-like model of decision making
- IV Other quantum probabilistic effects in economics, finance, and brain sciences
- Glossary of mathematics, physics, and economics/finance terms
- Index
7 - A brief overview
from III - Quantum probabilistic effects in psychology: basic questions and answers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2013
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of symbols
- I Physics concepts in social science? A discussion
- II Mathematics and physics preliminaries
- III Quantum probabilistic effects in psychology: basic questions and answers
- 7 A brief overview
- 8 Interference effects in psychology – an introduction
- 9 A quantum-like model of decision making
- IV Other quantum probabilistic effects in economics, finance, and brain sciences
- Glossary of mathematics, physics, and economics/finance terms
- Index
Summary
Decision making in social science: general overview
Decision-making models are central in economics and psychology. Finding appropriate models which can approach human decision-making behavior is, as expected, a very challenging task. Economics has for a long time embraced models which are based on a particular axiomatic skeleton. The axioms are thought to be “reasonable” approximations of general decision situations.
A central starting point in preference modeling in economics consists in proving that there exists an equivalence between the preference relation of an object x over an object y, denoted as x > y, if and only if there exists a utility function u(.), which maps a set of objects into R, such that u(x) > u(y). This is not an easy task. However, for a finite set of objects X (to which x and y belong), as any good micro-economic theory textbook will show, the equivalence is quite easy to show. It is substantially more difficult to show when the set X is countable infinite or uncountable. As David Kreps [1] indicates (p. 24), for an uncountable X there may exist a preference relation >, but this does not mean that there exists a utility function u(.)! The lexicographic preference relation is an example.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Quantum Social Science , pp. 113 - 123Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013