Why linear expressions in discounting and in empathy: a symmetry-based explanation

© 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. People’s preferences depend not only on the decision-maker’s immediate gain, they are also affected by the decision-maker’s expectation of future gains. A person’s decisions are also affected by possible consequences for others. In decis...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Supanika Leurcharusmee, Laxman Bokati, Olga Kosheleva
Format: Journal
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85087809602&origin=inward
http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/jspui/handle/6653943832/70446
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Chiang Mai University
id th-cmuir.6653943832-70446
record_format dspace
spelling th-cmuir.6653943832-704462020-10-14T08:40:21Z Why linear expressions in discounting and in empathy: a symmetry-based explanation Supanika Leurcharusmee Laxman Bokati Olga Kosheleva Computer Science Mathematics © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. People’s preferences depend not only on the decision-maker’s immediate gain, they are also affected by the decision-maker’s expectation of future gains. A person’s decisions are also affected by possible consequences for others. In decision theory, people’s preferences are described by special quantities called utilities. In utility terms, the above phenomena mean that the person’s overall utility of an action depends not only on the utility corresponding to the action’s immediate consequences for this person, it also depends on utilities corresponding to future consequences and on utilities corresponding to consequences for others. These dependencies reflect discounting of future consequences in comparison with the current ones and to empathy (or lack of) of the person toward others. In general, many formulas involving utility are nonlinear, even formulas describing the dependence of utility on money. However, surprisingly, for discounting and for empathy, linear formulas work very well. In this paper, we show that natural symmetry requirements can explain this linearity. 2020-10-14T08:31:05Z 2020-10-14T08:31:05Z 2020-01-01 Journal 14337479 14327643 2-s2.0-85087809602 10.1007/s00500-020-05153-7 https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85087809602&origin=inward http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/jspui/handle/6653943832/70446
institution Chiang Mai University
building Chiang Mai University Library
continent Asia
country Thailand
Thailand
content_provider Chiang Mai University Library
collection CMU Intellectual Repository
topic Computer Science
Mathematics
spellingShingle Computer Science
Mathematics
Supanika Leurcharusmee
Laxman Bokati
Olga Kosheleva
Why linear expressions in discounting and in empathy: a symmetry-based explanation
description © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. People’s preferences depend not only on the decision-maker’s immediate gain, they are also affected by the decision-maker’s expectation of future gains. A person’s decisions are also affected by possible consequences for others. In decision theory, people’s preferences are described by special quantities called utilities. In utility terms, the above phenomena mean that the person’s overall utility of an action depends not only on the utility corresponding to the action’s immediate consequences for this person, it also depends on utilities corresponding to future consequences and on utilities corresponding to consequences for others. These dependencies reflect discounting of future consequences in comparison with the current ones and to empathy (or lack of) of the person toward others. In general, many formulas involving utility are nonlinear, even formulas describing the dependence of utility on money. However, surprisingly, for discounting and for empathy, linear formulas work very well. In this paper, we show that natural symmetry requirements can explain this linearity.
format Journal
author Supanika Leurcharusmee
Laxman Bokati
Olga Kosheleva
author_facet Supanika Leurcharusmee
Laxman Bokati
Olga Kosheleva
author_sort Supanika Leurcharusmee
title Why linear expressions in discounting and in empathy: a symmetry-based explanation
title_short Why linear expressions in discounting and in empathy: a symmetry-based explanation
title_full Why linear expressions in discounting and in empathy: a symmetry-based explanation
title_fullStr Why linear expressions in discounting and in empathy: a symmetry-based explanation
title_full_unstemmed Why linear expressions in discounting and in empathy: a symmetry-based explanation
title_sort why linear expressions in discounting and in empathy: a symmetry-based explanation
publishDate 2020
url https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85087809602&origin=inward
http://cmuir.cmu.ac.th/jspui/handle/6653943832/70446
_version_ 1681752904172568576