Abstract
Previous research has shown that risk preferences are sensitive to the financial domain in which they are framed. In the present paper, we explore whether the effect of negative priming on risk taking is moderated by financial context. A total of 120 participants completed questionnaires, where risky choices were framed in six different financial scenarios. Half of the participants were allocated to a negative priming condition. Negative priming reduced risk-seeking behaviour compared to a neutral condition. However, this effect was confined to non-experiential scenarios (i.e., gamble to win, possibility to lose), and not to ‘real world’ financial products (e.g., pension provision). The results call into question the generalisability of priming effects on different financial contexts.
Highlights
A consistent finding from behavioural sciences is that human preferences, rather than being stable and inherent in individuals, are heavily influenced by contextual factors such as the available choice options [1,2]
In the present study, priming effects were observed, as participants exposed to negative priming were In less to study, take risky decisions
Thisgambling negative priming was Compared to financial products such as pension provision or insurance, it can be argued that simple confined to simple and non‐experiential financial scenarios
Summary
A consistent finding from behavioural sciences is that human preferences, rather than being stable and inherent in individuals, are heavily influenced by contextual factors such as the available choice options [1,2]. The preference reversal phenomenon suggests that no stable pattern of preference underlies even basic choices: There is some degree of inconsistency when participants make trade-offs between lotteries with different probabilities and values [3]. Previous research has suggested that decisions can be conceptualised as the result of an integration of influences derived from both the description (specified probability) and experience (pre-experimental beliefs about event frequencies) of risks. Preferences have been shown to be driven by processes that are independent from inferences (e.g., familiarity) [6], the latter being more frequently hypothesised as the main factor underlying human preferences [7,8].
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