Making sense of monkey business: Re-examining tests of animal rationality

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
Year: 2022
Volume: 196
Issue: C
Pages: 220-228

Authors (3)

Allen, Roy (University of Western Ontario) Dziewulski, Paweł (not in RePEc) Rehbeck, John (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

0.670 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper re-examines research that studies economic rationality using experimental data generated by nonhuman animals (e.g. rats, pigeons, monkeys, etc.). The standard experimental methodology to elicit choices from nonhuman animals allows a researcher to test three types of economic rationality: standard deterministic utility maximization, average choice rationality, and random utility maximization. Most of the research has evaluated whether animals satisfy average choice rationality. We describe the difference between these models and check each type of rationality on capuchin monkey data from Chen et al.(2006). We reject standard deterministic utility maximization and random utility maximization for most subjects, but we cannot reject average choice rationality. This paper is the first to provide a statistical test for average choice rationality.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jeborg:v:196:y:2022:i:c:p:220-228
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-24