Published: March 5, 2018 By

Economist鈥檚 work is challenging traditional recreational choice theory by suggesting that people may be an important driver


Edward Morey, professor of baby直播apps at the University of baby直播app Boulder, has long been interested in 鈥渞ecreational site choice鈥濃攚here do hikers, bikers, anglers, kayakers and anyone who plays in the great outdoors choose to do their thing and why?

Morey

Edward Morey

Most existing site-choice research focuses on the cost of visiting, the physical characteristics of the sites and the recreationist鈥檚 skills relative to the sites鈥 characteristics (e.g. skiing ability relative to trail difficulty). Morey鈥檚 research, however, focuses on social factors; he found that people are more likely to choose their recreation locations based on who is with them and their companion鈥檚 skill level.

This research, Morey acknowledges, sails into unfamiliar waters for the field of recreation baby直播apps.

鈥淯sing personality traits to explain why different people make different site choices is new to recreation demand,鈥 Morey says. 鈥淚n the area of recreational demand, the tendency is to view individuals as black boxes, choosing where to go in isolation from other people.鈥

鈥淚鈥檝e become more interested in the fundamentals of choice and questioning fundamental assumptions of choice theory in baby直播apps,鈥 he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 thinking more like a psychologist or a behavioral economist.鈥

Behavioral baby直播apps focuses on the role of psychological, emotional and social factors in individual decision-making.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an emerging field on the border of baby直播apps and psychology,鈥 Morey says. 鈥淏ehavioral baby直播apps is being applied in finance and other applied fields, but not so much in my field, environmental baby直播apps.鈥

In 2012, Morey and one of his students, David Kritzberg, published article in the Journal of Choice Modelling in which they concluded that 鈥渉aving a companion and the companion's relative ability are critical determinants of site choice鈥攚hat social psychology would predict.鈥

In a 2017 published in Ecological Economics, Morey and his co-author, Mara Thiene of the University of Padua in Italy, found that 鈥減ersonality traits interact with site characteristics and the ability of a potential companion to determine where, and with whom you recreate.鈥

It鈥檚 an emerging field on the border of baby直播apps and psychology. Behavioral baby直播apps is being applied in finance and other applied fields, but not so much in my field, environmental baby直播apps.鈥

Thiene and Morey surveyed more than 4,600 mountain bikers from around the world, asking standard behavioral questions about site choices, but also psychological questions to assess sensation-seeking, extroversion and competitiveness.

鈥淲e know that often who you are going with, and their ability, is more important than where you are going,鈥 Morey says. 鈥淣ow we were looking at how that varies among individuals, and that鈥檚 where personality comes in.鈥

For example, while some personality types thrill to death-defying descents, others aren鈥檛 looking for that kind of thrill. And some people tend to compete with themselves, while others compare their performance to those around them.

鈥淧ersonality comes into it with respect not just to the other person and their ability, but also in terms the site characteristics鈥攊s it long grind, nothing scary, or does it have death-defying descents?鈥 Morey says.

A person engaging in recreation alone can choose a pace from relaxing to challenging. Doing so with a companion can mean losing control over how the activity will play out, 鈥減articularly if the companion is of a different ability level, but you can socialize,鈥 the authors write.

Some recreation-demand modelers have reacted to Morey鈥檚 exploration of personality and social factors with skepticism: If the main concern is, say, managing use, enhancing site characteristics, or estimating damages from a spill in a trout stream, why worry about individuals' personalities?

Because, Morey argues, personality influences whether recreationists decide to go with a companion, and if so, what kind of companion鈥攊n terms of skill level, thrill-seeking, sociability, or whatever鈥攚hich will factor into selection of recreation sites, which will impact use, which has obvious implications for costs.

鈥淭he paper makes statistical contributions and uses some models that are new to recreation demand. These models could be applied to many other individual traits such as health and physical characteristics,鈥 Morey says. 鈥淚t will be interesting to see if either these new models, or using personality as an explanatory variable, catch on.鈥