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Intransitive cycles: Rational choice or random error? An answer based on estimation of error rates with experimental data

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Abstract

The paper presents results from two new experiments designed to test between the ‘rational choice’ hypothesis and the ‘random error’ hypothesis for intransitive choice. Error probabilities and population shares for transitive and intransitive preference types are estimated from data collected in the first experiment. An unrestricted model (which treats intransitive patterns as true patterns) performs no better than a model that is restricted to transitive patterns. Analysis of the conditional distributions of choice patterns, using data from the second experiment, confirms more directly the main results of the first experiment: that observed intransitive choice patterns are due to random error.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, New Jersey Hall, Rutgers University, 08903, New Brunswick, NJ, U.S.A.

    Barry Sopher & Gary Gigliotti

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  1. Barry Sopher
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  2. Gary Gigliotti
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Sopher, B., Gigliotti, G. Intransitive cycles: Rational choice or random error? An answer based on estimation of error rates with experimental data. Theor Decis 35, 311–336 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01075203

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01075203

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