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Evidence for surprise minimization over value maximization in choice behavior

Classical economic models are predicated on the idea that the ultimate aim of choice is to maximize utility or reward. In contrast, an alternative perspective highlights the fact that adaptive behavior requires agents’ to model their environment and minimize surprise about the states they frequent....

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Autores principales: Schwartenbeck, Philipp, FitzGerald, Thomas H. B., Mathys, Christoph, Dolan, Ray, Kronbichler, Martin, Friston, Karl
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4643240/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26564686
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep16575
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author Schwartenbeck, Philipp
FitzGerald, Thomas H. B.
Mathys, Christoph
Dolan, Ray
Kronbichler, Martin
Friston, Karl
author_facet Schwartenbeck, Philipp
FitzGerald, Thomas H. B.
Mathys, Christoph
Dolan, Ray
Kronbichler, Martin
Friston, Karl
author_sort Schwartenbeck, Philipp
collection PubMed
description Classical economic models are predicated on the idea that the ultimate aim of choice is to maximize utility or reward. In contrast, an alternative perspective highlights the fact that adaptive behavior requires agents’ to model their environment and minimize surprise about the states they frequent. We propose that choice behavior can be more accurately accounted for by surprise minimization compared to reward or utility maximization alone. Minimizing surprise makes a prediction at variance with expected utility models; namely, that in addition to attaining valuable states, agents attempt to maximize the entropy over outcomes and thus ‘keep their options open’. We tested this prediction using a simple binary choice paradigm and show that human decision-making is better explained by surprise minimization compared to utility maximization. Furthermore, we replicated this entropy-seeking behavior in a control task with no explicit utilities. These findings highlight a limitation of purely economic motivations in explaining choice behavior and instead emphasize the importance of belief-based motivations.
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spelling pubmed-46432402015-11-20 Evidence for surprise minimization over value maximization in choice behavior Schwartenbeck, Philipp FitzGerald, Thomas H. B. Mathys, Christoph Dolan, Ray Kronbichler, Martin Friston, Karl Sci Rep Article Classical economic models are predicated on the idea that the ultimate aim of choice is to maximize utility or reward. In contrast, an alternative perspective highlights the fact that adaptive behavior requires agents’ to model their environment and minimize surprise about the states they frequent. We propose that choice behavior can be more accurately accounted for by surprise minimization compared to reward or utility maximization alone. Minimizing surprise makes a prediction at variance with expected utility models; namely, that in addition to attaining valuable states, agents attempt to maximize the entropy over outcomes and thus ‘keep their options open’. We tested this prediction using a simple binary choice paradigm and show that human decision-making is better explained by surprise minimization compared to utility maximization. Furthermore, we replicated this entropy-seeking behavior in a control task with no explicit utilities. These findings highlight a limitation of purely economic motivations in explaining choice behavior and instead emphasize the importance of belief-based motivations. Nature Publishing Group 2015-11-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4643240/ /pubmed/26564686 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep16575 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Schwartenbeck, Philipp
FitzGerald, Thomas H. B.
Mathys, Christoph
Dolan, Ray
Kronbichler, Martin
Friston, Karl
Evidence for surprise minimization over value maximization in choice behavior
title Evidence for surprise minimization over value maximization in choice behavior
title_full Evidence for surprise minimization over value maximization in choice behavior
title_fullStr Evidence for surprise minimization over value maximization in choice behavior
title_full_unstemmed Evidence for surprise minimization over value maximization in choice behavior
title_short Evidence for surprise minimization over value maximization in choice behavior
title_sort evidence for surprise minimization over value maximization in choice behavior
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4643240/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26564686
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep16575
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