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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 19, 2026

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

Published on: August 25, 2023

Why contextual preference reversals maximize expected value.

Andrew Howes¹, Paul A Warren², George Farmer²

¹School of Computer Science.

Psychological Review

|June 24, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Contextual preference reversals, where choices change with new options, do not prove irrationality. Instead, they result from expected value maximization with imperfect calculations and observations.

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Area of Science:

Decision science
Cognitive psychology
Behavioral economics

Background:

Contextual preference reversals challenge rational choice theory.
Previous research suggests these reversals indicate irrational decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

To demonstrate that preference reversals can arise from rational, expected value maximizing processes under conditions of uncertainty.
To re-evaluate the implications of preference reversals for models of human choice.

Main Methods:

Developed a computational model incorporating noisy expected value calculations and option observations.
Simulated choice behavior under various contextual effects (attraction, compromise, similarity, phantom).

Main Results:

The model successfully replicated preference reversals, including attraction, compromise, similarity, and phantom effects.
Apparent irrationality in choice is explained by expected value maximization with noisy inputs.

Conclusions:

Contextual preference reversals are not evidence of irrationality.
These reversals are a predictable outcome of rational choice under noisy conditions.