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Exploring psychological tradeoffs: Developing and demonstrating an R Shiny app for Pareto optimization
Yixiao Dong1, Deodatta Baral2, Kushmakar Baral2
1Department of Education, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106-9490, USA. ydong@ucsb.edu.
Behavior Research Methods
|June 30, 2026
Summary
Pareto optimization (PO) offers a new method for studying psychological tradeoffs. This approach helps identify and quantify conflicts between psychological objectives, advancing research in areas like motivation and behavior.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Decision Science
- Behavioral Economics
Background:
- Many psychological constructs have socially desirable directions, making them objectives for pursuit.
- Psychological tradeoffs occur when pursuing competing objectives, yet traditional methods are insufficient for analysis.
- Pareto optimization (PO) is a powerful framework from other disciplines for analyzing tradeoffs.
Purpose of the Study:
- Introduce Pareto optimization (PO) to the psychological research community.
- Provide a user-friendly R Shiny application (PO-Run) for conducting PO analyses.
- Adapt the Marginal Rate of Substitution Index to quantify psychological tradeoffs.
Main Methods:
- Review conceptual and methodological foundations of Pareto optimization (PO).
- Develop and present the PO-Run R Shiny application for practical analysis.
- Apply the Marginal Rate of Substitution Index for quantifying psychological tradeoffs.
Main Results:
- Demonstrate the utility of PO for analyzing psychological tradeoffs with a real-world example.
- Provide a practical tool (PO-Run) for researchers to implement PO analyses.
- Offer guidance on interpreting results and future research directions.
Conclusions:
- Pareto optimization (PO) is a valuable, underutilized framework for psychological research on tradeoffs.
- The PO-Run application and adapted index facilitate the study of complex psychological objectives.
- This work opens new avenues for understanding human decision-making and behavior under competing goals.
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