Experimenting with new combinations of old ideas

Economic experiments have challenged traditional assumptions about, and increased our understanding of, human behavior, resulting in more realistic models. Specialization, both in terms of methods and of situations studied, has contributed considerably to the success of this research program. At the same time specialization makes predicting behavior difficult when many different elements play a role.
This dissertation combines four papers which try to relieve this problem by combining ideas from several specialization. The focus lies on linking ideas from social preferences with ideas on decision making under risk. Chapter two shows that a social reference point can influence risky decisions in unexpected ways. Chapter three uses individual risky decisions to distinguish between different social preference models.
The last two chapters combine other ideas. Chapter four combines the strategy method with evolutionary simulations to study the minority game. Chapter five applies the idea that prior experiences can influence decisions to libertarian paternalism.