COWLES FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH IN
ECONOMICS Box 208281
COWLES FOUNDATION DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 1893 Biology and the Arguments of Utility Luis Rayo and Arthur Robson April 2013 Why did evolution not give us a utility function that is offspring
alone? Why do we care intrinsically about other outcomes, such as food, and what
determines the intensity of such preferences? A common view is that such other outcomes
enhance fitness and the intensity of our preference for a given outcome is proportional to
its contribution to fitness. We argue that this view is incomplete. Specifically, we show
that in the presence of informational asymmetries, the evolutionarily most desirable
preference for a given outcome is determined not only by the significance of the outcome,
but by the Agent's degree of ignorance regarding its significance. Our model also sheds
light on the phenomena of peer effects and prepared learning, whereby some peer attitudes
are more influential than others. |
