Universität zu Köln

Leder, Johannes, Chapkovski, Philipp, Schütz, Astrid, Lauer, Thomas and Gürerk, Özgür ORCID: 0000-0001-7971-7319 (2024). Background uncertainty does not increase risk aversion in decision making. Scientific Reports, 14 (1). pp. 1-17. Springer Nature. ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

[Artikel-Nr.: 25899] Some theories in economics and psychology propose that background uncertainty, which is uncertainty that is independent of a person’s actual decision, can alter people’s risk-taking behavior with respect to that decision. However, previous empirical research mostly relying on single experiments is inconclusive regarding the existence of this effect. Here, we systematically investigate the effect of background uncertainty on decision-making. After reviewing the literature, we argue that two types of background uncertainty should be distinguished: (a) background ambiguity , where the decision maker does not know the probability of the outcomes of the background event, and (b) background risk , where the outcome probabilities are known. We tested the hypotheses (i) that background uncertainty does affect risk-taking in the decision at hand, and (ii) the type of background uncertainty moderates that effect. In four experiments (total N =863), we induced background uncertainty (ambiguity or risk) using different methods and measured risk-taking with multiple behavioral tasks. We did not find a significant effect of background uncertainty on risk-taking behavior.

Item Type:	Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Leder, Johannes UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Chapkovski, Philipp UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Schütz, Astrid UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Lauer, Thomas UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Gürerk, Özgür UNSPECIFIED https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7971-7319 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-816275
Identification Number:	10.1038/s41598-024-73650-y
Journal or Publication Title:	Scientific Reports
Volume:	14
Number:	1
Page Range:	pp. 1-17
Number of Pages:	17
Date:	29 October 2024
Publisher:	Springer Nature
ISSN:	2045-2322
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Management, Economy and Social Sciences
Divisions:	Weitere Institute, Arbeits- und Forschungsgruppen > Staatswissenschaftliches Seminar
Subjects:	Psychology Social sciences Economics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Background uncertainty ; Risk-taking behavior ; Ambiguity ; Risk, Uncertainty ; Decision making English
['eprint_fieldname_oa_funders' not defined]:	Publikationsfonds UzK
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/81627