The Effect of Outliers on Consumer Choice

This research investigates the effects of an extreme value (outlier) on a consumer’s reference price, and ultimately, the consumer’s choice. In a controlled experiment two hundred Bryant University students were presented with a choice task to select a cell phone plan from a set of plans described by price and six other features. Some choice sets contained a moderate outlier, an extreme outlier, or both a moderate and extreme outlier. Students who saw any of the outliers expected to pay an average of $4.40 more and ultimately chose a higher priced plan. However, there was no significant difference between reference price change or plan choice and the type of outlier seen. In addition, even students who recognized that the outlier was an inferior choice were still influenced by its presence in the choice set. The results of the study display two major outcomes useful to marketers. First, consumers will be willing to pay more for a product or will choose a product that costs more, if they see any type of outlier when making a choice. Second, irrelevant information is encoded, processed and used in decision making even when consumers recognize that it should not be used

The Rotation Average in Lightcone Time-Ordered Perturbation Theory

We present a rotation average of the two-body scattering amplitude in the lightcone time($\tau$)-ordered perturbation theory. Using a rotation average procedure, we show that the contribution of individual time-ordered diagram can be quantified in a Lorentz invariant way. The number of time-ordered diagrams can also be reduced by half if the masses of two bodies are same. In the numerical example of $\phi^{3}$ theory, we find that the higher Fock-state contribution is quite small in the lightcone quantization.Comment: 25 pages, REVTeX, epsf.sty, 69 eps file

Role of retardation in 3-D relativistic equations

Equal-time Green's function is used to derive a three-dimensional integral equation from the Bethe-Salpeter equation. The resultant equation, in the absence of anti-particles, is identical to the use of time-ordered diagrams, and has been used within the framework of $\phi^2\sigma$ coupling to study the role of energy dependence and non-locality when the two-body potential is the sum of $\sigma$-exchange and crossed $\sigma$ exchange. The results show that non-locality and energy dependence make a substantial contribution to both the on-shell and off-shell amplitudes.Comment: 17 pages, RevTeX; 8 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C56 (Nov. 97

Constructing Point Form Mass Operators from Interaction Lagrangians

Starting from an interaction Lagrangian formed out of local fields, an interacting four-momentum operator is constructed by integrating the interaction Lagrangian over the forward hyperboloid. Such a four-momentum operator has the property that the components commute among themselves; however, when the Fock space on which the four-momentum operator acts is truncated, the components no longer commute among themselves. By modifying matrix elements of the four-momentum operator on the truncated space, Bakamjian-Thomas mass operatorsare constructed which restore the Poincare relations. Examples for a simple Lagrangian are given.Comment: 15 page

Relativistic three-particle scattering equations

We derive a set of relativistic three-particle scattering equations in the three-particle c.m. frame employing a relativistic three-particle propagator suggested long ago by Ahmadzadeh and Tjon in the c.m. frame of a two-particle subsystem. We make the coordinate transformation of this propagator from the c.m. frame of the two-particle subsystem to the three-particle c.m. frame. We also point out that some numerical applications of the Ahmadzadeh and Tjon propagator to the three-nucleon problem use unnecessary nonrelativistic approximations which do not simplify the computational task, but violate constraints of relativistic unitarity and/or covariance.Comment: 5pages, text and one ps figure (in revtex) include