eprintid: 3977
rev_number: 8
eprint_status: archive
userid: 69
dir: disk0/00/00/39/77
datestamp: 2018-03-08 17:16:02
lastmod: 2018-03-08 17:16:02
status_changed: 2018-03-08 17:16:02
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Băbeanu, Alexandru-Ionuț
creators_name: Garlaschelli, Diego
creators_id: 
creators_id: diego.garlaschelli@imtlucca.it
title: Evidence for Mixed Rationalities in Preference Formation
ispublished: pub
subjects: HA
subjects: QC
divisions: EIC
full_text_status: public
abstract: Understanding the mechanisms underlying the formation of cultural traits is an open challenge. This is intimately connected to
cultural dynamics, which has been the focus of a variety of quantitative models. Recent studies have emphasized the importance of
connecting thosemodels to empirically accessible snapshots of cultural dynamics. In particular, it has been suggested that empirical
cultural states, which differ systematically from randomized counterparts, exhibit properties that are universally present. Hence, a
question about the mechanism responsible for the observed patterns naturally arises. This study proposes a stochastic structural
model for generating cultural states that retain those robust empirical properties. One ingredient of the model assumes that every
individual’s set of traits is partly dictated by one of several universal “rationalities,” informally postulated by several social science
theories.The second, new ingredient assumes that, apart from a dominant rationality, each individual also has a certain exposure
to the other rationalities. It is shown that both ingredients are required for reproducing the empirical regularities. This suggests
that the effects of cultural dynamics in the real world can be described as an interplay of multiple, mixing rationalities, providing
indirect evidence for the class of social science theories postulating such a mixing.
date: 2018
date_type: published
publication: Complexity
volume: 2018
publisher: Hindawi Publishing Corporation
pagerange: 1-19
id_number: doi:10.1155/2018/3615476
refereed: TRUE
issn: 1076-2787
official_url: http://doi.org/10.1155/2018/3615476
citation:   Băbeanu, Alexandru-Ionuț and Garlaschelli, Diego  Evidence for Mixed Rationalities in Preference Formation.  Complexity, 2018.  pp. 1-19.  ISSN 1076-2787      (2018)  
document_url: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/3977/1/3615476.pdf