Publications
Publications
- 2009
- The Mathematics of Preference, Choice and Order
Altruistic Utility Functions for Joint Decisions
By: David E. Bell and Ralph L. Keeney
Abstract
All of us make decisions that are not entirely self-centered; we voluntarily anticipate what we think to be the preferences of others and incorporate them into our decision making. We do this, not because of legal requirements or social norms, but because we are altruistic; we care intrinsically about the welfare of others. In this paper, we illustrate for these types of decisions how confusion may arise because the distinction between our personal (egotistical) preferences and our altruistic concerns is not carefully distinguished. We first define the distinction between personal and altruistic preferences, and then show how to use both of these kinds of preferences in prescriptive decision making methodologies.
Keywords
Citation
Bell, David E., and Ralph L. Keeney. "Altruistic Utility Functions for Joint Decisions." In The Mathematics of Preference, Choice and Order, edited by Steven Brams, William V. Gehrlein, and Fred S. Roberts, 27–38. Studies in Choice and Welfare. Springer, 2009.