The q-Exponential Social Discounting Functions of Gain and Loss
Taiki Takahashi
Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
DOI: 10.4236/am.2013.43066   PDF    HTML   XML   7,138 Downloads   15,506 Views   Citations

Abstract

Social discounting has been attracting attention in behavioral psychology, econophysics, and neuroeconomics. Several mathematical models have been proposed for social discounting; exponential discounting, hyperbolic discounting, a q-exponential discounting model based on Tsallis’ statistics. In order to experimentally examine the mathematical characteristics of the q-exponential social discounting models for gain and loss in humans, we estimated the parameters of the q-exponential social discounting models by assessing the points of subjective equality (indifference points) at seven social distances. We observed that gain was more steeply social-discounted than loss. Usefulness of the q-exponential social discounting model in social physics, econophysics, and cultural neuroeconomics are discussed.

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T. Takahashi, "The q-Exponential Social Discounting Functions of Gain and Loss," Applied Mathematics, Vol. 4 No. 3, 2013, pp. 445-448. doi: 10.4236/am.2013.43066.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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