1
$\begingroup$

This was in Thinking Fast and Slow by Kahneman.

He described a situation where someone might prefer A to B, and B to C, but then might prefer C to A (when A and C are directly compared to each other).

I can't seem to remember the name of this bias or fallacy, and I looked in the book but wasn't able to find the passage.

Anybody remember what it was?

(The last time I posted a behavioral economics question on here, some people protested that it didn't belong here. For your information, Kahneman has a Nobel in Economics, so please take your objections to the Nobel Committee. Thank you and good day.)

Update: the term is: "Preference Reversal"

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Bare in mind that, Daniel Kahneman is a psychologist. The economy prize given to him is because his finding fill up the all the void(especially irrational mistake) of all cheeky economist talk about rationality. IMHO, most "practice economist" has a reason to hate him. $\endgroup$ – mootmoot Jan 9 '17 at 15:31
5
$\begingroup$

When this event occurs it is known as a failure of "transitivity" of preferences.

Transitive preferences are such that for every X,Y,Z, if X is preferred to Y and Y is preferred to Z then X must be preferred to Z.

Economists define rational preferences as binary relations that are complete and transitive, meaning that we can compare everything and the comparisons are consistent.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.