The evolution of distorted beliefs vs. mistaken choices under asymmetric error costs

Why do people sometimes hold unjustified beliefs and make harmful choices? Three hypotheses include (a) contemporary incentives in which some errors cost more than others, (b) cognitive biases evolved to manage ancestral incentives with variation in error costs and (c) social learning based on choic...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Charles Efferson, Ryan McKay, Ernst Fehr
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2020-01-01
Series:Evolutionary Human Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513843X20000250/type/journal_article