Tastes for Desert and Placation: A Reference Point-Dependent Model of Social Preferences

Daniel L. Chen (daniel.chen@ut-capitole.fr)
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Daniel L. Chen: TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement

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Abstract: This paper proposes a reference-point dependent model of social behavior where individuals maximize a three-term utility function: a consumption utility term and two "social" terms. One social term captures a preference for desert (i.e., others getting what we think they deserve) and the other term a preference for the satisfaction of other's expectations, or to placate them (i.e., them getting what we think they think they deserve). After motivating the modeling assumptions with findings from empirical moral philosophy and evolutionary psychology, I introduce the model and generate some simple comparative statics results, which I then test with experiments. I discuss how the model explains several paradoxes of empirical moral philosophy that are less explicable by current economic models of social preference focusing on outcomes and intentions.

Keywords: Reference points; Social preferences; Just desert; Fairness; Prospect theory; Moral philosophy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-12-14
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Published in Anna Gunnthorsdottir; Douglas A. Norton. Experimental Economics and Culture, 20, Emerald, pp.205-226, 2018, Research in Experimental Economics, 978-1-78743-820-0. ⟨10.1108/S0193-230620180000020010⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04508928

DOI: 10.1108/S0193-230620180000020010

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