Removed Preferences

In formalizing a ‘veil of ignorance’ type procedure, this paper considers how an agent’s preferences over a set of alternatives change as he is placed at an increasing ‘distance’ from the consequences of his choices. A definition for such ‘removed preferences’ is presented and its properties studied. As an application, it is demonstrated that decreasingly impatient agents are ‘essentially’ exponential when distanced from the present, and that rank-dependent expected utility agents are ‘essentially’ expected utility when distanced from risk.