A Theory of Intuition and Contemplation
Author(s):
Benjamin Balzer, Benjamin Young
Date of publication: February 2020
Working paper number: 01
Abstract:
We introduce a model of intuition and contemplation in decision problems under uncertainty. Intuition is a garbling of true information and contemplation is the ability to recover the true informational content of signals. We define natural orders on the quality of intuition and on contemplative ability. In any non-strategic decision problem, the agent’s utility increases as either the quality of her intuition or her contemplative ability improves. We derive versions of Blackwell’s Infor- mativeness Theorem for our intuitive agent and apply the model to the canonical Bayesian persuasion problem.
