When Risk Is Weird: Unexplained Transaction Features Lower Valuations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mislavsky, Robert; Simonsohn, Uri
• 署名单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2017.2868
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 5395-5404
• 关键词: transaction features; weirdness; risk aversion; ambiguity aversion; uncertainty effect

摘要

We define transactions asweird when they include unexplained features, that is, features not implicitly, explicitly, or self-evidently justified, and propose that people are averse to weird transactions. In six experiments, we show that risky options used in previous research paradigms often attained uncertainty via adding an unexplained transaction feature (e.g., purchasing a coin flip or lottery), and behavior that appears to reflect risk aversion could instead reflect an aversion to weird transactions. Specifically, willingness to pay drops just as much when adding risk to a transaction as when adding unexplained features. Holding transaction features constant, adding additional risk does not further reduce willingness to pay. We interpret our work as generalizing ambiguity aversion to riskless choice.