Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Abhinash Borah
Author-Name-First: Abhinash
Author-Name-Last: Borah
Author-Email: abhinash.borah@ashoka.edu.in
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, Ashoka University
Author-Name: Christopher Kops
Author-Name-First: Christopher
Author-Name-Last: Kops
Author-Email: christopher.kops@awi.uni-heidelberg.de
Author-Workplace-Name: Heidelberg University
Title: Choice via Social Influence
Abstract: We introduce a theory of socially inﬂuenced individual choices. The source of social inﬂuence on an individual are his reference groups in society, formed of societal members he psychologically or contextually relates to. Choices made within an individual’s reference groups have an inﬂuence on the choices he makes. Speciﬁcally, we propose a choice procedure under which, in any choice problem, he considers only those alternatives that he can identify with at least one of his reference groups. From this “consideration set,” he chooses the best alternative according to his preferences. The procedure is an interactive one and captures the steady state of a process of mutual social inﬂuence. We behaviorally characterize this choice procedure. We also highlight the empirical content of the procedure by relating it to both experimental evidence and real world applications.
length: 39
Creation-Date: 20181203
Revision-Date: 
Publication-Status: 
File-URL: https://dp.ashoka.edu.in/ash/wpaper/paper06_0.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf 
Number: 06
Keywords: consideration sets
Keywords: Individual choice
Keywords: interactive behavioral choices
Keywords: reference groups
Keywords: social influence
Handle: RePEc:ash:wpaper:06