Tastes, castes, and culture: The influence of society on preferences

changes and if we gain a better understanding of the factors that affect preferences. In this regard,
economics, and the social sciences more generally, are still in their infancy. We still know
relatively little about how economic, social, and biological factors, and the interactions between
them, shape preferences.

2. Psychological Mechanisms Underlying the Susceptibility of Preferences to Social
Influences

2.1. Context-dependent visual perception

People often assume that what they see with their eyes is a correct representation of reality. We
see a rabbit and believe it is a rabbit, or we see a duck and believe it is a duck. We see two lines
of unequal length and believe they are of unequal length. However, vision research has produced
many examples indicating that our subjective perception of objects is not uniquely given.
Instead, perception is shaped by context and memory. To illustrate the effect of context, consider
Figures 1 - 3.

In the first figure, we perceive square A as darker than square B. However, because A is
set against a background of lighter squares, whereas B is set against a background of darker
squares, our perception is distorted. It is easy to check by putting the same frame on each square
that each is the same colour. In the second figure, the length of the two lines is identical, but the
context produces the perception that the left line is shorter than the right one. The third figure
shows a duck and a rabbit, but at a given moment in time one can see only a duck or a rabbit.
Moreover, the first time one looks at this picture, it is quite difficult to generate a perception
shift, i.e. to suppress the first impression and see the “hidden” animal.

[Insert Figures 1-3 about here]

2.2. Context-dependent preferences - anchoring, framing, and multiple social identities

A considerable literature in psychology and economics suggests that, like visual perception,
preferences are also context-dependent; they may be influenced by the elicitation method
(Lichtenstein and Slovic 1971 and Hsee 1996), the presentation (framing) of the problem

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