Lecture 1

Question 1

preference

Answer 1

the degree of liking for something that motivates choices

Question 2

rational choice theory

Answer 2

people have well-defined preferences and make decisions to satisfy these preferences.

Question 3

preference construction

Answer 3

preferences are labile, inconsistent, subject to factors we are unaware of and not always in our best interest.

in some situations we reject our true preference (or it is rejected)

Question 4

theory?

Answer 4

a system of ideas intended to explain something, like a model.

Question 5

when is a theory useful?

Answer 5

• is internally consistent
• has testable predictions
• empirically supported

Question 6

generality-specifity tradeoff?

Answer 6

• Generality = covers many phenomena & behaviors
• Specifity = able to predict behavior with high precision.

a theory mostly does not have both.

Question 7

gamblers fallacy

Answer 7

treating independent events as non-independent, assuming it will tend towards evening out.
-> denken dat als je de eerste keer 6 draait bij de boeka je de tweede keer niet nog een keer 6 draait.

Question 8

cautionary note on highly specific explanations

Answer 8

• sometimes they are tautological
• > can be masked by “dressing things up” in different names
• not really a “why” explanation

Question 9

proximate mechanism

Answer 9

how behavior is generated

Question 10

ultimate mechanism

Answer 10

why behavior is favored