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“I” make you risk-averse: The effect of first-person pronoun use in a lottery choice experiment

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  • He, Tai-Sen

Abstract

Does repeated exposure to the first-person pronoun “I” influence people’s attitudes toward risk? In a lottery-choice experiment, I directly manipulate the use of the pronoun “I” in two treatment conditions: “I,” in which the pronoun is included, and “No I,” in which it is omitted. I find that subjects in the “I” treatment condition appear to be more risk-averse than those in the “No I” treatment, suggesting a simple and cheap but effective way for policymakers and practitioners to mount interventions.

Suggested Citation

  • He, Tai-Sen, 2017. "“I” make you risk-averse: The effect of first-person pronoun use in a lottery choice experiment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 39-42.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:153:y:2017:i:c:p:39-42
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2017.01.014
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Charles A. Holt & Susan K. Laury, 2002. "Risk Aversion and Incentive Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1644-1655, December.
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    3. Alain Cohn & Jan Engelmann & Ernst Fehr & Michel André Maréchal, 2015. "Evidence for Countercyclical Risk Aversion: An Experiment with Financial Professionals," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(2), pages 860-885, February.
    4. Urs Fischbacher, 2007. "z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 10(2), pages 171-178, June.
    5. Robert B. Barsky & F. Thomas Juster & Miles S. Kimball & Matthew D. Shapiro, 1997. "Preference Parameters and Behavioral Heterogeneity: An Experimental Approach in the Health and Retirement Study," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 537-579.
    6. Wolfgang Breuer & Michael Riesener & Astrid Juliane Salzmann, 2014. "Risk aversion vs. individualism: what drives risk taking in household finance?," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(5), pages 446-462, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Niklas Ziemann, 2022. "You will receive your money next week! Experimental evidence on the role of Future-Time Reference for intertemporal decision-making," CEPA Discussion Papers 56, Center for Economic Policy Analysis.
    2. Chen, Josie I. & He, Tai-Sen, 2021. "Discounting from a distance: The effect of pronoun drop on intertemporal decisions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    3. Chen, Josie I. & He, Tai-Sen & Riyanto, Yohanes E., 2019. "The effect of language on economic behavior: Examining the causal link between future tense and time preference in the lab," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Risk preferences; Attitudes toward risk; Risk aversion; First-person pronoun; Laboratory experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior

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