TY - JOUR
T1 - Analogies and theories
T2 - The role of simplicity and the emergence of norms
AU - Gayer, Gabrielle
AU - Gilboa, Itzhak
N1 - Funding Information: We are grateful to two referees and an associate editor for comments and references. Gilboa gratefully acknowledges ISF Grant 396/10 and ERC Grant 269754 .
PY - 2014/1
Y1 - 2014/1
N2 - We consider the dynamics of reasoning by general rules (theories) and by specific cases (analogies). When an agent faces an exogenous process, we show that, under mild conditions, if reality happens to be simple, the agent will converge to adopt a theory and discard analogical thinking. If, however, reality is complex, analogical reasoning is unlikely to disappear. By contrast, when the agent is a player in a large population coordination game, and the process is generated by all players' predictions, convergence to a theory is much more likely. This may explain how a large population of players selects an equilibrium in such a game, and how social norms emerge. Mixed cases, involving noisy endogenous processes are likely to give rise to complex dynamics of reasoning, switching between theories and analogies.
AB - We consider the dynamics of reasoning by general rules (theories) and by specific cases (analogies). When an agent faces an exogenous process, we show that, under mild conditions, if reality happens to be simple, the agent will converge to adopt a theory and discard analogical thinking. If, however, reality is complex, analogical reasoning is unlikely to disappear. By contrast, when the agent is a player in a large population coordination game, and the process is generated by all players' predictions, convergence to a theory is much more likely. This may explain how a large population of players selects an equilibrium in such a game, and how social norms emerge. Mixed cases, involving noisy endogenous processes are likely to give rise to complex dynamics of reasoning, switching between theories and analogies.
KW - Case-based reasoning
KW - Equilibrium selection
KW - Model selection
KW - Rule-based reasoning
KW - Social norms
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84890937230&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2013.11.003
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geb.2013.11.003
M3 - مقالة
SN - 0899-8256
VL - 83
SP - 267
EP - 283
JO - Games and Economic Behavior
JF - Games and Economic Behavior
ER -