Evaluating reproductive decisions as discrete choices under social influence

Bentley, R.A.; Brock, W.A.; Caiado, C.C.S.; O'Brien, M.

Abstract

Discrete choice, coupled with social influence, plays a significant role in evolutionary studies of human fertility, as investigators explore how and why reproductive decisions are made. We have previously proposed that the relative magnitude of social influence can be compared against the transparency of pay-off, also known as the transparency of a decision, through a heuristic diagram that maps decision-making along two axes. The horizontal axis represents the degree to which an agent makes a decision individually versus one that is socially influenced, and the vertical axis represents the degree to which there is transparency in the pay-offs and risks associated with the decision the agent makes. Having previously parametrized the functions that underlie the diagram, we detail here how our estimation methods can be applied to real-world datasets concerning sexual health and contraception.

Citation

Bentley, R., Brock, W., Caiado, C., & O'Brien, M. (2016). Evaluating reproductive decisions as discrete choices under social influence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 371(1692), Article 20150154. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0154

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 3, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Mar 28, 2016
• Publication Date: Apr 19, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jun 15, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 11, 2017
• Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Print ISSN: 0962-8436
• Electronic ISSN: 1471-2970
• Publisher: The Royal Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 371
• Issue: 1692
• Article Number: 20150154
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0154