Why Would Nature Give Individuals Utility Functions?
探讨预期效用准则可能的生物学起源，认为个体若拥有基于预期后代产出率的效用函数，就能在无概率信念的简单经验法则下实现进化最优性。
Consider the possible biological origin of the expected utility criterion. On the one hand, if individuals possess a utility function stemming from the rate of production of expected offspring, they can rapidly adapt to arbitrary unknown distributions in a bandit problem. Embedding such a utility function in a simple rule of thumb involving no beliefs about probabilities leads to evolutionary optimality. On the other hand, if any rule whatever yields evolutionary optimality for all distributions, this precise utility function must be implicit, in a revealed preference sense.