Cleotilde Gonzalez (Carnegie Mellon University)
Abstract. A theoretical distinction has emerged in the past decade regarding how decisions are made from description (explicit definition of risks, outcomes, probabilities) or experience (implicit collection of past outcomes and probabilities). Explanations of choice under descriptive information often rely on Prospect Theory, while experiential choice has been plagued by highly task-specific models that often predict choice in particular tasks but fail to explain behavior even in closely related tasks. Furthermore, in social interactions the information about others (preferences, beliefs, degree of interdependence) may also influence interactions and choice, but narrow self-interest and complete information are common assumptions in empirical game theory paradigms, limiting our understanding of the types of uncertainty that people face in real-world social interactions. In this talk I will discuss recent research that crosses the borders of traditional descriptive or experiential approaches that attempt to address decision making in situations where many levels of information about the choice and about other decision makers may be available