title: Differences in Behavior and Brain Activity during Hypothetical and Real Choices.
abstract: Real behaviors are binding consequential commitments to a course of action, such as harming another person, buying an Apple watch, or fleeing from danger. Cognitive scientists are generally interested in the psychological and neural processes that cause such real behavior. However, for practical reasons, many scientific studies measure behavior using only hypothetical or imagined stimuli. Generalizing from such studies to real behavior implicitly assumes that the processes underlying the two types of behavior are similar. We review evidence of similarity and differences in hypothetical and real mental processes. In many cases, hypothetical choice tasks give an incomplete picture of brain circuitry that is active during real choice.
authors.affiliation: Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. Electronic address: camerer@caltech.edu.
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Camerer
authors.affiliation: Computation and Neural Systems Program, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA; Department of Psychology, Columbia University, 370 Schermerhorn Hall, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA.
authors.forename: Dean
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mobbs
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders; D009014:Morals; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: affective realism; choice; decision making; decision neuroscience; hypothetical bias; valuation