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It has been observed that psychopaths will accept positive expected values past some sort of notion of risk aversion by non-psychopaths.

Are there any observations of psychopaths' responses to negative expected values? The quoted study's only valid if it shows that psychopaths respond properly to expected losses.

Shiv, B., Loewenstein, G., Bechara, A., Damasio, H., & Damasio, A. R. (2005). Investment behavior and the negative side of emotion. Psychological Science, 16(6), 435-439.

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@Jeff No. That one's asking about whether psychopaths adhere to the Kelly Criterion, assuming that they prefer positive expected values. Kelly places logical limits on gambles vs risk, payoff, & "bankroll". This one questions whether just because they accept positive expected values down to nothing, they may just love to gamble. – Sulla Dec 8 '12 at 2:25
interesting thought. i think that is actually the point of the study though-not to show that these patients "prefer" positive gambles, but to show that their deficit can be advantageous in the right context. bechara has shown in the iowa gambling task that emotion lesion patients end up choosing the decks with negative EV. but as you suggest, it would be interesting to see if these patients, e.g., are more likely to play the lottery (with negative expected value) as well. since these patients had prefrontal damage, and thus problems with inhibition, i suspect they would. – Jeff Dec 8 '12 at 2:57
@Jeff Totally, but I'm wondering if they're as perfectly selfish as they're "defined" to be. The lotto's a potentially dangerous example since it becomes a positive expected value every 5 years. Kelly would prevent a psychopath from lottoing though. Wait, are psychopaths now limited to prefrontally damaged? – Sulla Dec 8 '12 at 3:01
what do you mean by becomes a positive expected value every 5 years? maybe you'll win every 5 years, but the expected value remains negative, always. – Jeff Dec 8 '12 at 3:03
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not sure how psychopaths are clinically defined, but bechara's studies are not about diagnosed psychopaths--they are about patients with lesions to emotion-related areas – Jeff Dec 8 '12 at 3:05
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