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on Cognitive and Behavioural Economics |
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Issue of 2024‒04‒08
six papers chosen by |
| By: | Felix Bönisch; Tobias König; Sebastian Schweighofer-Kodritsch; Georg Weizsäcker |
| Abstract: | We repeatedly elicit beliefs about the returns to study effort, in a large university course. A behavioral model of quasi-hyperbolic discounting and malleable beliefs predicts that the dynamics of beliefs mirrors the importance of exerting self-control, such that believed returns increase as the exam approaches, and drop post-exam. Exploiting variation in exam timing to control for common information shocks, we find this prediction confirmed: average believed study returns increase by about 20% over the period before the exam, and drop by about the same afterwards. Additional analyses further support the hypothesized mechanism that beliefs serve as a means of self-control. |
| Keywords: | beliefs, present bias, self-control, effort, survey |
| JEL: | C81 D81 D91 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10984&r=cbe |
| By: | Laura Breitkopf; Shyamal Chowdhury; Shambhavi Priyam; Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch; Matthias Sutter |
| Abstract: | We use novel data on nearly 6, 000 children and adolescents aged 6 to 16 that combine incen-tivized measures of social, time, and risk preferences with rich information on child behavior and family environment to study whether children’s economic preferences predict their behavior. Re-sults from standard regression specifications demonstrate the predictive power of children’s pref-erences for their prosociality, educational achievement, risky behaviors, emotional health, and behavioral problems. In a second step, we add information on a family’s socio-economic status, family structure, religion, parental preferences and IQ, and parenting style to capture household environment. As a result, the predictive power of preferences for behavior attenuates. We discuss implications of our findings for research on the formation of children’s preferences and behavior. |
| Keywords: | social preferences, time preferences, risk preferences, experiments with children, origins of preferences, human capital, behavior |
| JEL: | C91 D01 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_10988&r=cbe |
| By: | Hoff, Karla (Columbia University); Demeritt, Allison (University of Washington) |
| Abstract: | Until recently, economics conceived of poverty solely as a lack of material resources. This view likely captures the reality of poverty experienced by many people around the globe. However, two waves of behavioral economics demonstrate that the narrowing of people’s external environments may change people themselves: poverty lowers the quality of decision-making, and poverty and oppression may depress the capacity to aspire. Poverty and a history of oppression also change how individuals are perceived. To overcome these effects may require helping people acquire new mental models. This essay discusses key findings from behavioral economics, the implications for agency, and some interventions with promising outcomes. We hope to inspire scholars and policymakers to think more deeply about the nature of poverty and oppression and to consider policies that target the psychological and sociological factors that create cycles of poverty. |
| Keywords: | psychology of scarcity, culture, cognition, mental models, agency, role models, participatory theater JEL Classification: |
| Date: | 2023 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:695&r=cbe |
| By: | Deborah A. Cobb-Clark; Sarah C. Dahmann; Daniel A. Kamhöfer; Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch |
| Abstract: | While there is an established positive relationship between self-control and education, the direction of causality remains a matter of debate. We make a contribution to resolving this issue by exploiting a series of Australian and German educational reforms that increased minimum education requirements as a source of exogenous variation in education levels. Instrumental variables estimates suggest that, for people affected by the reforms, an additional year of schooling has no effect on self-control. |
| Keywords: | self-control; quasi-experiments; compulsory schooling reforms; Brief Self-Control Scale |
| JEL: | D90 I26 C26 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp1206&r=cbe |
| By: | Fabian Dvorak; Urs Fischbacher |
| Abstract: | Despite strong evidence for peer effects, little is known about how individuals balance intrinsic preferences and social learning in different choice environments. Using a combination of experiments and discrete choice modeling, we show that intrinsic preferences and social learning jointly influence participants' decisions, but their relative importance varies across choice tasks and environments. Intrinsic preferences guide participants' decisions in a subjective choice task, while social learning determines participants' decisions in a task with an objectively correct solution. A choice environment in which people expect to be rewarded for their choices reinforces the influence of intrinsic preferences, whereas an environment in which people expect to be punished for their choices reinforces conformist social learning. We use simulations to discuss the implications of these findings for the polarization of behavior. |
| Date: | 2024–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2402.18452&r=cbe |
| By: | Bernard Claverie (IDC - Institut de Cognitique - Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Cognitique, EA-487 - Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives - Université Bordeaux Segalen - Bordeaux 2, ENSC - Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Cognitique - Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux, IMS - Laboratoire de l'intégration, du matériau au système - UB - Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1 - Institut Polytechnique de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, HEAL - Human engineering for Aerospace Laboratory - THALES [France]); Jean-François Trinquecoste (IRGO - Institut de Recherche en Gestion des Organisations - UB - Université de Bordeaux - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Bordeaux, Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Bordeaux) |
| Abstract: | Directed cognitive influence consists, particularly in the field of cognitive warfare, of altering, modifying, or preventing the autonomous development of a human target's thoughts. These interventions can have lasting, even permanent, consequences on the targeted people. Several methods are used, some of which relate to psychology or medicine, which obviously raises the problem of the ethics of such practices in an illegal exercise of protected professions. |
| Abstract: | L'influence cognitive orientée consiste, notamment pour ce qui est du domaine de la guerre cognitive, à altérer, modifier ou empêcher le déroulement autonome de la pensée d'une cible humaine. Ces interventions peuvent avoir des conséquences durables sur les personnes ciblées, voire définitives. Plusieurs méthodes sont utilisées dont certaines relèvent de la psychologie ou de la médecine, ce qui pose évidemment le problème de l'éthique de telles pratiques dans un exercice illégal de professions protégées. |
| Keywords: | Cognition, cognitive warfare, ethics, influence, psychological operations, psychology, Behaviour control, Behaviour, éthique, guerre psychologique, guerre cognitive, psychologie, MOTS-CLÉS. Cognition éthique influence guerre psychologique guerre cognitive médecine psychologie Cognition cognitive warfare ethics influence medicine psychological operations psychology, MOTS-CLÉS. Cognition, médecine, psychologie Cognition, medicine, Comportement Social, Comportement |
| Date: | 2024–02–23 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04475705&r=cbe |