The q -Exponential Social Discounting Functions of Gain and Loss

Abstract

Social discounting has been attracting attention in behavioral psychology, econophysics, and neuroeconomics. Several mathematical models have been proposed for social discounting; exponential discounting, hyperbolic discounting, a q-exponential discounting model based on Tsallis’ statistics. In order to experimentally examine the mathematical characteristics of the q-exponential social discounting models for gain and loss in humans, we estimated the parameters of the q-exponential social discounting models by assessing the points of subjective equality (indifference points) at seven social distances. We observed that gain was more steeply social-discounted than loss. Usefulness of the q-exponential social discounting model in social physics, econophysics, and cultural neuroeconomics are discussed.