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Generalized Disappointment Models

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Abstract

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed”

—Benjamin Franklin

Based on our risk-value framework, this paper presents extensions for the disappointment models that were originally proposed by Bell (1985) and Loomes and Sugden (1986). We provide explicit functional forms for modeling the effect of disappointment on risky choice behavior that generalizes Bell's work and lends tractability to the efforts of Loomes and Sugden. Our generalized disappointment models can explain a number of decision paradoxes, and offer additional insights into nonexpected utility preferences based on the intuitive notions of disappointment and risk-value tradeoffs.

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Jia, J., Dyer, J.S. & Butler, J.C. Generalized Disappointment Models. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 22, 59–78 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011153523672

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