Ambiguity as a Source of Temptation: Modeling Unstable Beliefs

The "General-Self-Control-Preference" model introduced by Noor and Takeoka (2010) allows to take into account non linear costs of Self-Control. In this paper we extend this theory to situations in which a decision-maker faces ambiguity. We focus on the fact that lack of information is a potential source of temptation. Indeed lack of information doesn't allow the decision-maker to put a probability measure on uncertain events. Our basic hypothesis is that, in ambiguous situation, individuals are not confident enough about their beliefs and could therefore be tempted to use other beliefs to evaluate the alternatives in the second period. We study a two period model where ex ante dominated choice may tempt the decision-maker in the second period. Individuals have preferences over sets of alternatives that represent second period choices. We provide a Choice-Theoretic model where the ex ante belief is a probability measure whereas ex post belief is a Choquet-capacity, in order to take into account individual attitudes towards ambiguity in the second period.

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Source https://shs.hal.science/halshs-00797631
Author Lapied, André, Rongiconi, Thomas
Maintainer CCSD
Last Updated May 13, 2026, 11:13 (UTC)
Created May 13, 2026, 11:13 (UTC)
Identifier halshs-00797631
Language en
Rights https://about.hal.science/hal-authorisation-v1/
contributor Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille (GREQAM) ; École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-École Centrale de Marseille (ECM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
creator Lapied, André
date 2013-03-13T00:00:00
harvest_object_id 62875036-86fb-43c6-b3b9-1411bbb6cfe8
harvest_source_id 3374d638-d20b-4672-ba96-a23232d55657
harvest_source_title test moissonnage SELUNE
metadata_modified 2026-01-24T00:00:00
set_spec type:UNDEFINED