On the stability of social risk preferences for health and wealth

This study investigates the temporal and contextual stability of social risk preferences across health and wealth, focusing on both gains and losses. Using a large representative Dutch panel, we replicated the experimental design of Attema et al. (2023) which elicited social risk preferences through allocation decisions involving two anonymous recipients under risk. The design allows us to distinguish three dimensions of preferences: risk preferences, inequality aversion, and social risk preferences arising from trade-offs between risk and inequality, corresponding to utilitarian, ex-ante, and ex-post perspectives on social welfare. At the aggregate level, the main patterns documented in the original study are largely replicated: inequality aversion is prevalent and risk aversion is weaker in the loss domain than in the gain domain. At the individual level, however, stability is more limited. Test–retest correlations are positive but modest, and the proportion of identical choices across waves varies across domains and framings. Parametric estimations further reveal substantial heterogeneity in social risk preferences. A latent-class analysis identifies utilitarian preferences as the largest group, followed by ex-post and ex-ante perspectives. Overall, the results highlight the coexistence of persistence, contextual effects, and heterogeneity in social risk preferences.