RobinZ comments on Expected utility without the independence axiom - Less Wrong

9 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 28 October 2009 02:40PM

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Comment author: Psychohistorian 28 October 2009 10:15:22PM *  0 points [-]

I prefer B to A does not imply I prefer 10B to 10A, or even I prefer 2B to 2A. Expected utility != expected return.

I agree pretty much completely with Silas. If you want to prove that people are money pumps, you need to actually get a random sample of people and then actually pump money out of them. You can't just take a single-shot hypothetical and extrapolate to other hypotheticals when the whole issue is how people deal with the variability of returns.

Comment author: RobinZ 28 October 2009 11:08:14PM 1 point [-]

Strictly speaking, Eliezer's formulation of the Allais Paradox is not the one that has been experimentally tested. I believe a similar money pump can be implemented for the canonical version, however -- and Zut Allais! shows that people can be turned into money pumps in other situations.