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Ambiguity Attitudes in the Loss Domain: Decisions for Self versus Others

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Listed:
  • Yilong Xu

    (University of Heidelberg)

  • Xiaogeng Xu

    (Norwegian School of Economics)

  • Steven Tucker

    (University of Waikato)

Abstract

Important financial and medical decisions are often made on behalf of others. We study whether and how people’s ambiguity attitudes differ when deciding for others as compared to deciding for oneself in the loss domain. Our results are consistent with the loss part of the fourfold pattern: ambiguity aversion for low likelihood losses and ambiguity neutrality for moderate likelihood losses. This pattern holds both when deciding for oneself and for others. We find no differences in ambiguity attitudes between self- and other-regarding decision-making.

Suggested Citation

  • Yilong Xu & Xiaogeng Xu & Steven Tucker, 2018. "Ambiguity Attitudes in the Loss Domain: Decisions for Self versus Others," Working Papers in Economics 18/07, University of Waikato.
    • Handle: RePEc:wai:econwp:18/07
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    Cited by:

    1. Polman, Evan & Wu, Kaiyang, 2020. "Decision making for others involving risk: A review and meta-analysis," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Bose, Arundhati Sarkar & Sarkar, Sumit, 2022. "Delight or disappointment? A model of signal-based other-pleasing choice," Journal of choice modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    3. Waichman, Israel & Blanckenburg, Korbinian von, 2020. "Is there no “I” in “Team”? Interindividual-intergroup discontinuity effect in a Cournot competition experiment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    ambiguity attitudes; decision-making for others; losses and uncertainty;
    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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