Reason-based choice and context-dependence: An explanatory framework

Economics and Philosophy 32 (2):175-229 (2016)
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Abstract

We introduce a “reason-based” framework for explaining and predicting individual choices. It captures the idea that a decision-maker focuses on some but not all properties of the options and chooses an option whose motivationally salient properties he/she most prefers. Reason-based explanations allow us to distinguish between two kinds of context-dependent choice: the motivationally salient properties may (i) vary across choice contexts, and (ii) include not only “intrinsic” properties of the options, but also “context-related” properties. Our framework can accommodate boundedly rational and sophisticatedly rational choice. Since properties can be recombined in new ways, it also offers resources for predicting choices in unobserved contexts.

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Author Profiles

Franz Dietrich
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Christian List
Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München

References found in this work

Reason-based choice.E. Shafir - 1993 - Cognition 49 (1-2):11-36.
Internal consistency of choice.Amartya Sen - 1993 - Econometrica 61:495–521.
Decision Theory and Rationality.José Luis Bermúdez - 2009 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.

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