How well do couples know their partners’ preferences? Experimental evidence from joint recreation

Abstract

There are many situations in which one partner must make decisions on behalf of the couple. In such cases, incomplete knowledge about the partner’s likes and desires might lead to suboptimal decisions. This paper investigates whether individuals hold accurate beliefs about their partners’ tastes. In particular, we look at gender differences in knowledge about one’s partner’s preferences in the context of joint recreation. We conduct a Discrete Choice Experiment on a sample of couples from northern Spain to elicit the individual’s own and their prediction of their partner’s preferences for travel characteristics. Using Latent Class Modelling (LCM) to allow for preference heterogeneity, we find that, in general terms, both partners hold pretty accurate beliefs about the other’s likes and dislikes when selecting a travel package. Nonetheless, males are found to know their female partner’s preferences slightly better.