Menu dependence

Roughly speaking, in decision theory, game theory, and rational choice, menu dependence arises when the evaluation of alternatives for choice or the mode of selection guiding choice varies parametrically with what collection of alternatives is available for choice (i.e., with what "menu" or decision problem a decision maker is facing). Menu dependence can be accompanied by violations of various so-called consistency (or coherence) constraints, such as Sen's condition α (also known as Chernoff's Axiom, a contraction condition) and Sen's conditions γ and β (expansion conditions). While the phenomenon can arise in a variety of ways, menu dependence is often informally associated with a change in a decision maker's preferences among alternatives with the addition of irrelevant alternatives.

See also

• Decoy effect
• Predictably Irrational, book by Dan Ariely

Further reading

• Sen, Amartya (1994). "The Formulation of Rational Choice". The American Economic Review. 84 (2): 385–390. JSTOR 2117864.
• Sen, Amartya (1997). "Maximization and the Act of Choice" (PDF). Econometrica. 65 (4): 745–779. doi:10.2307/2171939. JSTOR 2171939.
• Sen, Amartya (2002). Rationality and Freedom. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 165ff. ISBN 9780674013513.
• Sniderman, Paul M.; Bullock, John (2004). "A Consistency Theory of Public Opinion and Political Choice: The Hypothesis of Menu Dependence". Studies in Public Opinion: Attitudes, Nonattitudes, Measurement Error, and Change. pp. 337–358. doi:10.2307/j.ctv346px8.16. ISBN 9780691188386. S2CID 15958075.