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AN EVOLUTIONARY MODEL OF TASTE FOR RISK
Author(s) -
RUBIN PAUL H.,
II CHRIS W. PAUL
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.1979.tb00549.x
Subject(s) - economics , mechanism (biology) , taste , risk aversion (psychology) , microeconomics , mathematical economics , expected utility hypothesis , psychology , neuroscience , epistemology , philosophy
Economists take tastes as given. However, tastes must be derived from biological models of evolutionary survival; we exhibit those tastes which served to make our ancestors survive. In particular, economists have no theory which explains observed behavior towards risk; rather, we take behavior as a datum. In this paper we present a model which explains risk seeking by adolescents and risk aversion by mature males as the result of an evolutionary mechanism.