TITLE:
The q-Exponential Social Discounting Functions of Gain and Loss
AUTHORS:
Taiki Takahashi
KEYWORDS:
Social Discounting; Altruism; Neuroeconomics; Econophysics; Sociophysics; Tsallis’ Statistics
JOURNAL NAME:
Applied Mathematics,
Vol.4 No.3,
March
21,
2013
ABSTRACT: Social discounting has been attracting attention in behavioral psychology, econophysics, and neuroeconomics. Several mathematical models have been proposed for social discounting; exponential discounting, hyperbolic discounting, a q-exponential discounting model based on Tsallis’ statistics. In order to experimentally examine the mathematical characteristics of the q-exponential social discounting models for gain and loss in humans, we estimated the parameters of the q-exponential social discounting models by assessing the points of subjective equality (indifference points) at seven social distances. We observed that gain was more steeply social-discounted than loss. Usefulness of the q-exponential social discounting model in social physics, econophysics, and cultural neuroeconomics are discussed.