timtyler comments on Morality is not about willpower - Less Wrong

9 Post author: PhilGoetz 08 October 2011 01:33AM

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Comment author: taw 21 October 2011 01:57:58PM 2 points [-]

Here's fundamental impossibility result for modeling risk aversion in expected utility framework, and this is for the ridiculously oversimplified and horribly wrong version of "risk aversion" invented specifically for expected utility framework.

Actual risk aversion looks nothing like a concave utility curve, you can get one bet right, then when you change bet size, bet probability, wealth level or anything, you start getting zeroes or infinities where you shouldn't, always.

Prospect theory provides simple models that don't immediately collapse and are of some use.

Comment author: timtyler 27 October 2011 03:04:20PM *  0 points [-]

To quote from that paper

On the other hand, if we think that subjects in experiments are risk averse, then we know they are not expected-utility maximizers.

My reaction was essentially: yeah: right <yawn>.