Gambling with Death

Orthodox expected utility theory imposes too stringent restrictions on what attitudes to risk one can rationally hold. Focusing on a life-and-death gamble, I identify as the main culprit the theory’s Linearity property, according to which the utility of a particular change in the risk of a bad outco...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Topoi Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 271 - 281
Main Author:	Orri, Stefánsson H
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-04-2020 Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:	Decision theory Education Expected utility Expected utility theory Linearity Philosophy Philosophy of Science Philosophy of Technology Risk Zeckhauser's paradox Risk Expected utility theory Zeckhauser’s paradox Linearity
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Orthodox expected utility theory imposes too stringent restrictions on what attitudes to risk one can rationally hold. Focusing on a life-and-death gamble, I identify as the main culprit the theory’s Linearity property, according to which the utility of a particular change in the risk of a bad outcome is independent of the original level of risk. Finally, I argue that a recent non-standard Bayesian decision theory, that does not have this property, handles risky gambles better than the orthodox theory.
ISSN:	0167-7411 1572-8749 1572-8749
DOI:	10.1007/s11245-017-9519-z