Library logic

The traditional theory of decision making says this:

Given three states A, B and C, into each one of which an individual may put himself, if an individual prefers A to B and B to C, they should prefer A to C.

Experimental data shows that this is often not the case. It’s a case of people being misled by their heuristics, specifically how they judge the states based on features of similarity.

Similarity between states increases with the addition of common features and/or the deletion of distinctive features.

My hypothesis for economics is that there are two forces at work in economic decision making. Features of similarity and Attractiveness of a state.

Attractiveness of a State increases if it is someone else’s and/or can be achieved without effort, and/or it can or does instill envy.

Given three states A, B and C, into each one of which an individual may put himself, if an individual finds A more attractive than B and B to C, they should prefer A to C.

Basically, this isn’t the case because people might prefer A, B or C or it belongs to someone else, or its a freebie.