An evolutionary perspective on human decision making : new models for behavioral ecology
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation describes a set of models of human decision making that address distinct topics but share an evolutionary approach to studying human behavior. Theoretically, they fit squarely within the field of human behavioral ecology, but should prove of interest to scholars in a variety of disciplines, including evolutionary psychology, archaeology, evolutionary anthropology, economics, and statistics. Chapter 1 introduces the dissertation. Chapter 2 presents a novel field processing model that extends the canonical model due to Metcalfe and Barlow by accounting for the opportunity cost of home labor. The model's usefulness is illustrated using ethnographic data from dissertation fieldwork in eastern Indonesia. Chapter 3 presents a novel model of the evolution of mammalian life histories that extends a model due to Charnov and colleagues. The innovations the model incorporates are (a) an arbitrary growth production function, (b) non-stationary demography, and (c) optimization over size at independence. Chapters 4 and 5 describe work on the evolution of economic preferences. Chapter 4 presents a hierarchical framework for modeling the evolution of preferences, and Chapter 5 implements that framework using stochastic age structured life history theory. Key results include a generalization of the Arrow-Pratt risk premium and an evolutionary explanation of pessimistic probability weighting, which is the means by which rank dependent expected utility theory and cumulative prospect theory accommodate the Allais paradox. Chapter 6 describes a novel Martingale-type residual for use in event history analysis. The residual has a uniform probability density function defined on the interval -.5 to +.5 when censoring is appropriately accounted for in a competing risks framework, which makes it easier to interpret than alternatives.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2015 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Price, Michael Holton |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Anthropology. |
| Primary advisor | Bird, Rebecca (Rebecca Bliege) |
| Primary advisor | Jones, James |
| Thesis advisor | Bird, Rebecca (Rebecca Bliege) |
| Thesis advisor | Jones, James |
| Thesis advisor | Bird, Douglas W |
| Thesis advisor | Durham, William H |
| Thesis advisor | Klein, Richard |
| Advisor | Bird, Douglas W |
| Advisor | Durham, William H |
| Advisor | Klein, Richard |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Michael Holton Price. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Anthropology. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2015. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2015 by Michael Holton Price
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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