title: Evaluating reproductive decisions as discrete choices under social influence.
abstract: Discrete choice, coupled with social influence, plays a significant role in evolutionary studies of human fertility, as investigators explore how and why reproductive decisions are made. We have previously proposed that the relative magnitude of social influence can be compared against the transparency of pay-off, also known as the transparency of a decision, through a heuristic diagram that maps decision-making along two axes. The horizontal axis represents the degree to which an agent makes a decision individually versus one that is socially influenced, and the vertical axis represents the degree to which there is transparency in the pay-offs and risks associated with the decision the agent makes. Having previously parametrized the functions that underlie the diagram, we detail here how our estimation methods can be applied to real-world datasets concerning sexual health and contraception.
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA rabentle@central.uh.edu.
authors.forename: R Alexander
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Bentley
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Brock
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.
authors.forename: Camila C S
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8136-1531
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Caiado
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: O'Brien
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior; D003267:Contraception / Q000523:psychology; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D043762:Reproductive Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D066262:Social Norms
keywords: Bangladesh; contraception; discrete choice; fertility; sexual health; social influence