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Maximizing utility or avoiding losses? Uncovering decision rule-heterogeneity in sociological research with an application to neighborhood choice
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Liebe, Ulf, van Cranenburgh, Sander and Chorus, Caspar (2024) Maximizing utility or avoiding losses? Uncovering decision rule-heterogeneity in sociological research with an application to neighborhood choice. Sociological Methods and Research . doi:10.1177/00491241231186657 ISSN 0049-1241. (In Press)
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/00491241231186657
Abstract
Empirical studies on individual behavior often, implicitly or explicitly, assume a single type of decision rule. Other studies do not specify behavioral assumptions at all. We advance sociological research by introducing (random) regret minimization, which is related to loss aversion, into the sociological literature and by testing it against (random) utility maximization, which is the most prominent decision rule in sociological research on individual behavior. With an application to neighborhood choice, in a sample of four European cities, we combine stated choice experiment data and discrete choice modelling techniques and find a considerable degree of decision rule-heterogeneity, with a strong prevalence of regret minimization and hence loss aversion. We also provide indicative evidence that decision rules can affect expected neighborhood demand at the macro level. Our approach allows identifying heterogeneity in decision rules, i.e. the degree of regret/loss aversion, at the level of choice attributes such as the share of foreigners when comparing neighborhoods, and can improve sociological practice related to linking theories and social research on decision making.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology | ||||||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Decision making, Rational choice theory, Neighborhood planning | ||||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Sociological Methods and Research | ||||||||||||
Publisher: | SAGE Publications | ||||||||||||
ISSN: | 0049-1241 | ||||||||||||
Official Date: | 2024 | ||||||||||||
Dates: |
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DOI: | 10.1177/00491241231186657 | ||||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||||
Publication Status: | In Press | ||||||||||||
Re-use Statement: | Posted ahead of print. Liebe, Ulf, van Cranenburgh, Sander and Chorus, Caspar (2023) Maximizing utility or avoiding losses? Uncovering decision rule-heterogeneity in sociological research with an application to neighborhood choice. Sociological Methods and Research. Copyright © 2023 by SAGE Publications. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. https://journals.sagepub.com/home/smr Users who receive access to an article through a repository are reminded that the article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. | ||||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||||||
Copyright Holders: | © The Author(s) 2023. | ||||||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 31 May 2023 | ||||||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 31 May 2023 | ||||||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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