Information, evolution and utility

Human utility embodies a number of seemingly ir- rational aspects. The leading example in this paper is that utilities often depend on the presence of salient unchosen alternatives. Our focus is to un- derstand why an evolutionary process might optimally lead to such seemingly dysfunctional features in our motivations and to derive implications for the nature of our utility functions. Journal of Economic Literature classiflcation numbers C70,C72,D80,D82.

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