Year: 2014
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The Allais Paradox represents one of the earliest empirical challenges to normative models of decision-making, and suggests that choices in one part of a gamble may depend on the possible outcome in another, independent, part of the gamble-a violation of the so-called "independence axiom." To account for Allaisian behavior, one well-known class of models propose that individuals' choices are influenced not only by possible outcomes resulting from one's choices, but also the anticipation of regret for foregone options. Here we test the regret hypothesis using a population of patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), a clinical population known to present ventromedial prefrontal cortex dysfunctions and associated with impaired regret processing in previous studies of decision-making. Compared to matched controls and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, we found a striking diminution of Allaisian behavior among bvFTD patients. These results are consistent with the regret hypothesis and furthermore suggest a crucial role for prefrontal regions in choices that typically stands in contradiction with a basic axiom of rational decision-making.
Source: Frontiers in Neuroscience
Institutions: Institut Jean Nicod, University of Geneva, École Normale Supérieure - PSL, Inserm, Institut des Sciences Moléculaires, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Institut du Cerveau, University of California, Berkeley, Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas, Laboratoire d'Économie Mathématique et de Microéconomie Appliquée, Université Panthéon-Assas
Language: English
Subfield: General Decision Sciences
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,801
OpenAlex ID: W2051784570