Preference Bias Research Articles

The Stimulus’ Orienting Function May Play an Important Role in IRAP Performance: Supportive Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Study of Brands

The Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP) has been typically used to access behavioral biases to relations that the participants learned throughout their history of social interactions. Recent research has highlighted the role of the stimulus orienting function on IRAP performance. The present study used the IRAP to assess preference biases for smartphone application (app) icons, namely WhatsApp and Messenger, and intended to check if these biases correspond to the orienting function of these stimuli in a visual search paradigm monitored by eye tracking. The IRAP presented relations between the WhatsApp and Messenger icons and happy or angry facial expressions. The visual search task had two steps: in Step 1, matrices of app icons were designed to emulate smartphone screens, and the participant was instructed to find either the WhatsApp or the Messenger icon; in Step 2, happy or angry faces were presented as targets in matrices of pictures of neutral faces that functioned as distractors. Participants were more prompted to respond Yes than No to the relation between the WhatsApp icon and happy facial expressions in IRAP trials, and showed ambivalent bias to the Messenger icon. Regarding the visual search performance, participants’ were faster to find the WhatsApp target than to find the Messenger target. In addition, they were faster to find the happy targets than the angry targets. Results from the current study corroborate the hypothesis that the stimulus orienting function may play an important role on IRAP performance and, as a result, are supportive to the Differential Arbitrarily Applicable Relational Responding Effects (DAARRE) model.

Effect of 9 - PAHSA on cognitive dysfunction in diabetic mice and its possible mechanism

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is currently a major global health problem, which is associated with the development of cognitive dysfunction. However, although numerous clinical drugs for hyperglycemia have been used at present, safer and more effective therapeutic intervention strategies for diabetic cognitive impairments are still a huge challenge. Recently, several studies have indicated that a novel class of branched palmitic acid esters of hydroxyl stearic acids (PAHSAs) may have anti-diabetes and anti-inflammatory effects in insulin-resistant mice. Herein, whether the 9-PAHSA that one of the PAHSAs can attenuates DM-associated cognitive impairment in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes has been investigated. Our results showed that 9-PAHSA mildly prevented deficits of spatial working memory in Y-maze test while reversed the preference bias toward novel mice in Social choice test. Furthermore, the effect of REST on cognitive impairment of diabetes was explored for the first time. It was found that the expression of REST in diabetic mice increased, and the expression of target protein BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophic factor) was decreased. After administration of 9-PAHSA, the situation was reversed. In summary, we conclude that exogenous supplement of 9-PAHSA can improve DM-related cognitive impairment to some extent, and the protective effect may be associated with decreased REST/NRSF (repressor element-1 silencing transcription factor/neuron-restrictive silence factor) and upregulated BDNF expression in frontal cortex.

Multi-criteria rating conversion without relation loss for recommender systems

Traditional recommender systems let users provide a single rating indicating their overall preferences toward items. Beside overall rating, multi-criteria recommender systems let users rate on multiple aspects of items with multi-criteria ratings. Most methods in recommender systems are based on collaborative filtering, which makes recommendations by exploiting ratings from neighbor users. However, most of them ignore the fact that rating behaviors of users vary due to their personal preference biases. Thus, exploiting ratings from neighbors directly might result in a poor recommendation. To solve this, the rating conversion techniques have been applied in some single criterion recommendations. For multi-criteria ratings, converting each criterion rating independently might result in loss of relation among criteria ratings. We propose a novel method that simultaneously converts all criteria ratings between users to maintain their implicit relations. The multi-criteria ratings are first normalized by variances of users and principle component analysis is applied to extract user preference patterns. Such patterns are then used for multi-criteria rating conversion. The experiment results show that our method outperforms both current single and multi-criteria rating conversion techniques with RMSEs of 1.1082 and 3.5574 on TripAdvisor and Yahoo datasets respectively, while maintaining considerably high level of prediction coverages.

Healthiness or calories? Side biases in food perception and preference

The visual perception of a product and the ability to categorize it play a central role in food choice. People's opinion of the healthiness and caloric content of a food is influenced substantially by its appearance. Despite that, few studies have analyzed i) which one of the two dimensions of caloric content and healthiness is preferred to categorize food, ii) if these dimensions are mapped on the individuals' horizontal space, and iii) if such biases could influence food preferences. Therefore, through 4 experiments, we investigated which dimension, healthiness or caloric content, is more often used to categorize foods. We also evaluated whether a healthiness/caloric content side bias could be able to influence food preferences. We found that foods were mainly categorized as “Healthy” or “High-calorie” and the latter label was used more often when presented on the right of a foodstuff. Also, foods were categorized as healthier when the “Healthy” label was anchored to the left and the “Unhealthy” one to the right side of a visual analogue scale. Then, we found a more positive evaluation of transformed food when the key assigned to the “Pleasant” choice was on the right compared to the left. Lastly, we found that when presented on the left side, low-calorie was preferred compared to high-calorie food. Our findings shed light on both the fields of food categorization and side biases in food perception and preferences, suggesting the possibility to use these biases to promote a healthy diet and emphasizing the importance of considering this potential confounder in experimental setups.

The impact of depression and anxiety treatment on biological aging and metabolic stress: study protocol of the Mood treatment with antidepressants or running (MOTAR) study

BackgroundDepressive and anxiety disorders have shown to be associated to premature or advanced biological aging and consequently to adversely impact somatic health. Treatments with antidepressant medication or running therapy are both found to be effective for many but not all patients with mood and anxiety disorders. These interventions may, however, work through different pathophysiological mechanisms and could differ in their impact on biological aging and somatic health. This study protocol describes the design of an unique intervention study that examines whether both treatments are similarly effective in reducing or reversing biological aging (primary outcome), psychiatric status, metabolic stress and neurobiological indicators (secondary outcomes).MethodsThe MOod Treatment with Antidepressants or Running (MOTAR) study will recruit a total of 160 patients with a current major depressive and/or anxiety disorder in a mental health care setting. Patients will receive a 16-week treatment with either antidepressant medication or running therapy (3 times/week). Patients will undergo the treatment of their preference and a subsample will be randomized (1:1) to overcome preference bias. An additional no-disease-no-treatment group of 60 healthy controls without lifetime psychopathology, will be included as comparison group for primary and secondary outcomes at baseline. Assessments are done at week 0 for patients and controls, and at week 16 and week 52 for patients only, including written questionnaires, a psychiatric and medical examination, blood, urine and saliva collection and a cycle ergometer test, to gather information about biological aging (telomere length and telomerase activity), mental health (depression and anxiety disorder characteristics), general fitness, metabolic stress-related biomarkers (inflammation, metabolic syndrome, cortisol) and genetic determinants. In addition, neurobiological alterations in brain processes will be assessed using structural and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in a subsample of at least 25 patients per treatment arm and in all controls.DiscussionThis intervention study aims to provide a better understanding of the impact of antidepressant medication and running therapy on biological aging, metabolic stress and neurobiological indicators in patients with depressive and anxiety disorders in order to guide a more personalized medicine treatment.Trial registrationTrialregister.nl Number of identification: NTR3460, May 2012.

Does time inconsistency differ between gain and loss? An intra-personal comparison using a non-parametric elicitation method

Several studies on time preference have found time inconsistency in both gain and loss preferences. However, the relationship between the two within the same person remains unclear; that is, does an individual who demonstrates time inconsistency for gain outcomes do so for losses as well? This paper reports on individuals’ time inconsistency for gains and losses in a laboratory setting. To obtain a precise comparison of individuals’ time inconsistency for gains and losses, we used Rohde’s “DI (decreasing impatience)-index” (Manag Sci 65(4):1700–1716, 2018) and measured the level of time inconsistency, rather than merely identifying whether TI was present. This index represents how strongly a person exhibits present bias, and easily extends to the comparison between gain and loss preferences within the same person. Further, it allows the experiment to test for so-called future bias, which has been a focus area in recent time inconsistency literature. It is elicited through a non-parametric method, which avoids any specification errors in the analysis. Our findings are as follows: first, we found future bias in preferences for not only gains but also losses, and we confirmed that this tendency is consistent with previous findings on preferences for gains. Second, a positive correlation between time inconsistency for gains and losses was found at the individual level. Indeed, we could not find a significant difference between the two in most cases.

A study on codon usage bias in cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene of solitary ascidian Herdmania momus Savigny, 1816.

Synonymous codon usage bias is an inevitable phenomenon in organismic taxa, where synonymous codons occur at uneven frequencies in gene. Synonymous codon usage pattern differs between species and also among the genes of a genome. Codon usage bias is determined under various degrees by mutational bias, natural selection and other factors. In this study codon usage pattern of cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene of a solitary ascidian Herdmania momus was determined by analyzing the nucleotide content, codon distribution frequency, hydrophobicity, Relative Synonymous Codon Usage (RSCU), Effective Number of Codons (ENC), GC3 and Codon Adaptation Index (CAI) values. Results presented low GC content and higher ENC values indicating less bias in codon usage preference. The Grand Average of Hydropathicity (GRAVY) values and hydropathy plot confirmed the hydrophobic nature of COI the protein.

Americans preferred Syrian refugees who are female, English-speaking, and Christian on the eve of Donald Trump's election.

What types of refugees do Americans prefer for admission into the United States? Scholars have explored the immigrant characteristics that appeal to Americans and the characteristics that Europeans prioritize in asylum-seekers, but we currently do not know which refugee characteristics Americans prefer. We conduct a conjoint experiment on a representative sample of 1800 US adults, manipulating refugee attributes in pairs of Syrian refugee profiles, and ask respondents to rate each refugee’s appeal. Our focus on Syrian refugees in a 2016 survey experiment allows us to speak to the concurrent refugee crisis on the eve of a polarizing election, while also identifying religious discrimination, holding constant the refugee’s national origin. We find that Americans prefer Syrian refugees who are female, high-skilled, English-speaking, and Christian, suggesting they prioritize refugee integration into the U.S. labor and cultural markets. We find that the preference for female refugees is not driven by the desire to exclude Muslim male refugees, casting doubt that American preferences at the time were motivated by security concerns. Finally, we find that anti-Muslim bias in refugee preferences varies in magnitude across key subgroups, though it prevails across all sample demographics.

Confirmation of odd sample bias in triadic design preference tests with a no-preference option, using confusable stimuli, and a solution

Two preference test methods utilizing triadic designs (i.e., presenting two identical products and a different product in a test) have been proposed to improve the validity of the paired preference test using a no-preference response option, by considering responses generated from preference bias (i.e., consumers’ responses are tilted toward a preference response rather than a no-preference response, resulting in the overestimation of preference responses). One of the test methods was the replicated duo-trio difference-preference (DT-Preference) test method, which had a balanced-reference design, while the other was the triadic preference test method. These two methods were designed to provide more conservative preference results in different ways. For the DT-Preference test method, it was assumed that the preference responses that were simply generated from the preference bias would also be prone to an odd sample bias (i.e., consumers tilted the preference against the stimulus that was most different from the other two) in the triadic design. For the triadic preference test method, the responses were screened out if the subjects reported a preference between the identical stimuli, assuming no bias in the triadic design. In the present study, the odd sample bias assumed in the triadic design was tested by the triadic preference test method and the DT-Preference test method by using two pairs of confusable orange juice stimuli assumed to have negligible preference by 256 consumers. For the DT-Preference test method, two variants of the duo-trio test designs were used. The odd sample bias was confirmed for all test methods using triadic designs, invalidating the application of the triadic preference test method without replication.

Symptomatology differences of major depression in psychiatric versus general hospitals: A machine learning approach

BackgroundSymptomatology differences of major depressive disorder (MDD) in psychiatric and general hospitals in China leads to possible misdiagnosis. Looking at the symptomatology of first-visit patients with MDD in different mental health services, and identifying predictors of health-seeking behavior using machine learning may help to improve diagnostic accuracy. Methods1500 patients first diagnosed with MDD were recruited from 16 psychiatric hospitals and 16 general hospitals across China. Socio-demographic characteristics, causal attribution, symptoms of depression within and outside Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) framework were collected using a self-made questionnaire. A predictive model of 62 variables was established using Random forest, symptom frequencies of patients in general hospitals and psychiatric hospitals were compared. ResultsThe machine learning approach revealed that symptoms were strong predictors of health-seeking behavior among patients with MDD. General hospitals patients had higher frequencies of suicidal ideation (χ2=15.230, p<0.001), psychosis (χ2=14.264, p<0.001), weight change (all p<0.001), hypersomnia (χ2=25.940, p<0.001), and a tendency of denying emotional/cognitive symptoms compared with psychiatric hospitals patients. LimitationsStigma and preference bias were not measured. Severity of current depressive episodes was not assessed. Data of previous episode(s) was not presented. ConclusionsSymptom evaluation targeting specific patient population in different hospitals is crucial for diagnostic accuracy. Suicide prevention reliant on collaboration between general hospitals and psychiatric hospitals is required in the future construction of Chinese mental health system.

A Computational Model of Attention Control in Multi-Attribute, Context-Dependent Decision Making

Real-life decisions often require a comparison of multi-attribute options with various benefits and costs, and the evaluation of each option depends partly on the others in the choice set (i.e., the choice context). Although reinforcement learning models have successfully described choice behavior, how to account for multi-attribute information when making a context-dependent decision remains unclear. Here we develop a computational model of attention control that includes context effects on multi-attribute decisions, linking a context-dependent choice model with a reinforcement learning model. The overall model suggests that the distinctiveness of attributes guides an individual's preferences among multi-attribute options via an attention-control mechanism that determines whether choices are selectively biased toward the most distinctive attribute (selective attention) or proportionally distributed based on the relative distinctiveness of attributes (divided attention). To test the model, we conducted a behavioral experiment in rhesus monkeys, in which they made simple multi-attribute decisions over three conditions that manipulated the degree of distinctiveness between alternatives: (1) four foods of different size and calorie; (2) four pieces of the same food in different colors; and (3) four identical pieces of food. The model simulation of the choice behavior captured the preference bias (i.e., overall preference structure) and the choice persistence (repeated choices) in the empirical data, providing evidence for the respective influences of attention and memory on preference bias and choice persistence. Our study provides insights into computations underlying multi-attribute decisions, linking attentional control to decision-making processes.

Son Preference and Child Under nutrition in the Arab Countries: Is There a Gender Bias against Girls?

ABSTRACTAlthough son preference has been demonstrated in the MENA region with different manifestations and at several phases of human development, the literature remains sparse as far as studies examining the early childhood phase are concerned. The current study aims to explore the presence of a gender bias in child nutrition status and its association with maternal son preference in three Arab countries; namely, Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen. Child nutritional status is measured using the Height-for-Age z-score (HAZ). To examine the presence of gender bias across the entire nutritional distribution, we utilized a quantile regression framework. We use data from the most recent rounds of the Demographic and Health Survey on a nationally representative sample of children aged 0–4 years. Descriptive statistics show that 21.5% of the mothers demonstrate son preference in Yemen compared to 19.10% in Jordan and 13.26% in Egypt. Results of the baseline OLS model demonstrate a robust pro-girl nutrition bias in the three countries. However, results of the quantile regression model show that this pro-girl nutrition bias is only prevalent at the lower segment of the conditional HAZ distribution for Jordan and Yemen and is prevalent across the whole conditional HAZ distribution for Egypt. We also find no statistically significant association between maternal son preference and gender bias in child nutrition in the three countries. Although son preference is manifested in several phases of human development in the MENA region, the current study finds no nutritional bias against girls in the examined countries at early childhood.

Dinucleotide evolutionary dynamics in influenza A virus.

Significant biases of dinucleotide composition in many RNA viruses including influenza A virus have been reported in recent years. Previous studies have showed that a codon-usage-altered influenza mutant with elevated CpG usage is attenuated in mammalian in vitro and in vivo models. However, the relationship between dinucleotide preference and codon usage bias is not entirely clear and changes in dinucleotide usage of influenza virus during evolution at segment level are yet to be investigated. In this study, a Monte Carlo type method was applied to identify under-represented or over-represented dinucleotide motifs, among different segments and different groups, in influenza viral sequences. After excluding the potential biases caused by codon usage and amino acid sequences, CpG and UpA were found under-represented in all viral segments from all groups, whereas UpG and CpA were found over-represented. We further explored the temporal changes of usage of these dinucleotides. Our analyses revealed significant decrease of CpG frequency in Segments 1, 3, 4, and 5 in seasonal H1 virus after its re-emergence in humans in 1977. Such temporal variations were mainly contributed by the dinucleotide changes at the codon positions 3-1 and 2-3 where silent mutations played a major role. The depletions of CpG and UpA through silent mutations consequently led to over-representations of UpG and CpA. We also found that dinucleotide preference directly results in significant synonymous codon usage bias. Our study helps to provide details on understanding the evolutionary history of influenza virus and selection pressures that shape the virus genome.

Does hand skill asymmetry relate to creativity, developmental and health issues and aggression as markers of fitness?

ABSTRACTA remarkable feature of human handedness at the population level is specialization of the hands, the right hand performing usually better than the left. This specialization might have an evolutionary advantage, because it provides the individual and population with a wider range of skill. We therefore investigated the relationships between hand skill asymmetry and potential markers of Darwinian fitness that have been hypothesized to explain the bias in hand preference: creativity, aggression and developmental and health problems. Over twenty thousand participants (56% left-handers) completed an online survey, including a finger-tapping task to measure hand skill asymmetry. Left-skilled individuals were overall more aggressive than right-skilled individuals and rated themselves as more artistically creative. However, when assessed with a questionnaire, they were less creative on problem solving and equally artistically creative compared to right-skilled individuals, who reported more health problems. Conclusion: we found some evidence for current selection on the direction of lateralization of hand skill although the effect sizes were rather low. Strength of lateralization of hand skill showed only a few associations with fitness proxies. We suggest that Darwinian selection on hand preference (Zickert, Feen, van der, Geuze, & Groothuis, 2018. Fitness costs and benefits associated with hand preference in humans: A large internet study in a Dutch sample. Evolution and Human Behavior, 39, 235–248) and hand skill asymmetry (present study) may be attenuated in modern society.

Impact of residential area on the management of rheumatoid arthritis patients initiating their first biologic DMARD: Results from the Ontario Best Practices Research Initiative (OBRI).

Access to care and management of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients may differ based on residential area. We described differences in the profile of patients initiating their first biologic disease modifying antirheumatic drug (bDMARD) based on their residential area type.Cross-sectional analysis of 793 adult RA patients in the longitudinal Ontario Best Practices Research Initiative (OBRI) registry initiating their first bDMARD <30 days prior to or anytime post-enrolment. Patient residential and clinic areas (rural vs. urban) were classified using 2 methods: postal codes and Statistics Canada population centres. Sociodemographics, disease characteristics, and RA medications (tumor necrosis factor inhibitor [TNFi] vs. non-TNFi, concurrent use of conventional synthetic DMARDs [csDMARDs], and intravenous [IV] vs. subcutaneous [SC] bDMARD) at initiation of first bDMARD were contrasted between residential area types.Other than marital status, first language, and race (higher proportion of married, English speaking, Caucasian patients in rural areas), no significant differences were observed in the demographic and disease characteristics of patients living in rural and urban areas. In multivariate analysis, there was no association between residential area type and type of bDMARD use, concurrent csDMARD(s) use or route of bDMARD. However, patients living farther from their treating clinic were significantly less likely to initiate IV bDMARD. Female rheumatologist and rural clinic location were independently associated with lower odds of IV bDMARD use.The use of SC vs. IV bDMARD was associated with being seen in a clinic located in a rural area, being treated by a female rheumatologist, and living farther from treating clinic. These results suggest possible prescription bias in bDMARD selection and/or patient preferences due to convenience.

Gaussian-Distributed Codon Frequencies of Genomes.

DNA encodes protein primary structure using 64 different codons to specify 20 different amino acids and a stop signal. Frequencies of codon occurrence when ordered in descending sequence provide a global characterization of a genome’s preference (bias) for using the different codons of the redundant genetic code. Whereas frequency/rank relations have been described by empirical expressions, here we propose a statistical model in which two different forms of codon usage co-exist in a genome. We investigate whether such a model can account for the range of codon usages observed in a large set of genomes from different taxa. The differences in frequency/rank relations across these genomes can be expressed in a single parameter, the proportion of the two codon compartments. One compartment uses different codons with weak bias according to a Gaussian distribution of frequency, the other uses different codons with strong bias. In prokaryotic genomes both compartments appear to be present in a wide range of proportions, whereas in eukaryotic genomes the compartment with Gaussian distribution tends to dominate. Codon frequencies that are Gaussian-distributed suggest that many evolutionary conditions are involved in shaping weakly-biased codon usage, whereas strong bias in codon usage suggests dominance of few evolutionary conditions.

Identification of a Critical Amino Acid Position Conferring G‐protein Bias to Delta Opioid Receptor Peptides

IntroductionThe delta opioid receptor (δOR) is a G‐protein coupled receptor that presents as a promising target in the potential treatment of mood, anxiety and alcohol use disorders. Thus far, attempts at the clinical development of δOR agonists have not met desired end‐points, which may be related to the risk of seizures associated with some δOR agonists. Previous studies have associated δOR agonist induced seizures to an agonist's efficacy in recruiting β‐arrestin proteins. Thus, it has been hypothesized that δOR agonists that display minimal β‐arrestin recruitment may show greater promise in developing into successful clinical therapies. A big current limitation in readily producing such signal biased drugs is a lack of conformational insight into such biased signaling. Recently, we determined that the naturally derived rubiscolin peptides YPLDL and YPLDLF possess a preference or signaling bias towards Gi protein over β‐arrestin recruitment. Here we hypothesize that the conformationally restricted nature of proline may be contributing to the G‐protein bias of these peptides.MethodsTo interrogate our hypothesis we systematically exchanged proline with residues of varying flexibility and lipophilicity. Peptides were synthesized using standard Fmoc‐based solid‐phase synthesis with HBTU. Sequences were derived from rubiscolins YPLDLF, YPLDLV and YPMDLV, representing 3 different series. Each series consisted of 5 peptides with substitution at the second position by either proline, alanine, glycine, valine or serine. In vitro characterization of G‐protein (cAMP Glosensor), β‐arrestin 2 recruitment (PathHunter) and radioligand binding (3H‐DPDPE competition) was performed for each peptide at the δOR.ResultsWithin glycine, alanine and proline substituted rubiscolin derivatives, β‐arrestin 2 potency and efficacy showed a consistent trend of Gly &gt; Ala &gt; Pro. Further, these same derivatives all showed full agonism through Gi with potency values following the same rank‐order, as did radioligand affinity. Substitution of valine ablated both β‐arrestin 2 and Gi activity and dramatically reduced binding affinity relative to proline, while serine substitution reduced Gi potency and efficacy relative to proline with more modest effects on β‐arrestin 2 and binding.DiscussionOur data suggests an important role for proline in the apparent bias of the rubiscolin peptides. Specifically, at this second position it appears that increasing residue flexibility correlates with increased β‐arrestin 2 recruitment. Our finding that substitution with hydrophilic serine did not strongly increase β‐arrestin 2 preference, nor that valine decreased it, suggests that the G‐protein bias observed for the proline containing peptides is unlikely to be due to the greater lipophilicity of proline relative to glycine and alanine. These findings should provide opportunities to use computational analysis to model the δOR in conformations that are either G protein biased or promote arrestin recruitment.Support or Funding InformationThis project was funded by a grant from the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (R03DA045897 to RMvR).This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Ethnically Biased? Experimental Evidence from Kenya

Abstract Ethnicity has been shown to shape political, social, and economic behavior in Africa, but the underlying mechanisms remain contested. We utilize lab experiments to isolate one mechanism—an individual's bias in favor of coethnics and against non-coethnics—that has been central in both theory and in the conventional wisdom about the impact of ethnicity. We employ an unusually rich research design involving a large sample of 1300 participants from Nairobi, Kenya; the collection of multiple rounds of experimental data with varying proximity to national elections; within-lab priming conditions; both standard and novel experimental measures of coethnic bias; and an implicit association test (IAT). We find very little evidence of an ethnic bias in the behavioral games, which runs against the common presumption of extensive coethnic bias among ordinary Africans and suggests that mechanisms other than a coethnic bias in preferences must account for the associations we see in the region between ethnicity and political, social, and economic outcomes.

What influence domestic and overseas developers’ decisions?

PurposeForeign firms entering into the domestic real estate industry and foreign investment control are significant in global hot markets such as Australia. Despite their market impact and policy sensitivity, developer choice is rarely studied. The purpose of this paper is to study domestic and overseas property developers for their motive and preference in response to market growth and market barriers including regulatory constraint.Design/methodology/approachInternational trade theory suggests local and overseas firms can vary significantly for their risk profile when engaging in location-specific development opportunities. Using a comprehensive decision factor system for the residential development process, the authors conducted an experimental survey to collect the prime data to measure stated preference of domestic and overseas developers in the context of the Melbourne residential market.FindingsResults suggest high consistency between the samples of domestic and overseas developers. Possible explanations include vertical integration by innovative contracting, strict regulatory constraint dictates domestic and overseas firms’ preference or sample selection bias. This micro-analysis of developer stated preference highlights their entrepreneurial ability to combine substitution and integration for innovative contractual strategy. This ability to join asset holding and project management enables firm flexibility to mitigate business risk in rapidly globalising capital and factor markets.Practical implicationsThese insights of firm-level decision making contribute to the decision literature of real estate developers and are relevant to the broader literature of industrial economics and international trade. Government may evaluate policy strategies based on the explicit entrepreneur (e.g. developer) preference for their “comparative advantage”.Originality/valueThis paper highlights developer’s ability to jointly consider investment and project management for decision making. It found that other than political cost such as national interest and domestic interest group pressure, domestic and overseas developers in the Melbourne residential market actually think quite alike. It suggests that irrespective of property ownership conditions, market integration occurs in the Melbourne residential sector.

BDNF polymorphism in non-veridical decision making and differential effects of rTMS.

Making decisions when an objectively correct option is not obvious, involves different neurobiological mechanisms than "veridical" decision making. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) exhibits a distinct pattern of prefrontal activation in non-veridical cognition, but little is known about the role of underlying neurobiological endophenotypes. A functional polymorphism in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene, causing a valine (Val) to methionine (Met) amino acid substitution at codon 66, has been shown to be associated with structural and functional changes in DLPFC and affect veridical decision making. We hypothesized that the BDNF genotype may be related to non-veridical cognition. We explored whether the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism affected preferences in a cognitive task devoid of intrinsically correct or false choice, using the Cognitive Bias Task (CBT). We also studied if manipulating the right DLPFC with rTMS stimulation changes non-veridical preferences. Sixteen healthy adults, including 9 Val/Val and 7 Val/Met subjects, participated in the study. Participants with Val/Met genotype expressed a more context-independent, internally driven choice selection preference. Val/Val subjects' selection was more dependent on the context, driven by the properties of external stimuli. rTMS stimulation enhanced a preexisting bias in choice preferences. In Val/Val subjects, TMS stimulation shifted the non-veridical preference bias towards greater dependence on external context, while in Val/Met subjects the CBT score became more context-independent. Our study showed that BDNF genotype is associated with a bias in non-veridical preferences and that Val/Val and Val/Met subjects respond differently to right DLPFC rTMS stimulation, further enhancing their preexisting selection biases.