Not really the same: Computerized and real lotteries in decision making research

Abstract

Computer technologies are routinely employed for many experimental procedures in decision-making research. Because computer-supported conduct has been shown to bias certain types of measures, the study evaluated the impact of computerized presentation of lotteries on risky choice tasks. A sample of 187 German undergraduates (147 women) participated in an experiment on financial decision-making. After presenting two types of lotteries participants had to choose between the risky and the conservative lottery. The experiment followed a 3 (presentation mode)×2 (type of payoff) factorial design. Results indicated that the risky lottery was chosen more frequently when the lotteries were presented on computer as compared to real lotteries where participants drew balls from a closed box. Differences in risk perceptions mediated the mode effect on choice behavior. Moreover, risk taking decreased when the monetary payoff was made salient. Hence, computerized sampling and artificial payoffs (e.g., points) increased risky choices. Our findings therefore suggest that computer-supported sampling procedures in decision-making research might overestimate risk-taking behavior as compared to risk-taking in applied practice (i.e. in non-virtual sampling scenarios using monetary payoffs).