The Risk-Averse Body: How Consumers’ Risk Preferences Deviate When Making Decisions About Their Body Versus Their Money

Medical and cosmetic procedures can enhance the health and appearance of our bodies, yet they also bear the risk of discomfort, side effects, and other negative bodily experiences, potentially deterring consumers from making advantageous decisions. This research asks: To what extent and why are consumers hesitant to embrace the risk of such bodily experiences, and when do they become more risk-tolerant? Five experiments (N=2,756) compare consumers’ risk preferences for bodily prospects (e.g., choices involving varying levels of side effects) to those for equivalent monetary prospects (e.g., choices involving financial amounts equivalent to these side effects), demonstrating that when consumers face risky bodily prospects, an extremely negative bodily experience comes to mind. This causes consumers to treat available options as comparative gains and thus to exhibit risk aversion. This bodily risk aversion, which reflects a substantial deviation from consumers’ monetary risk preferences, attenuates when social norms encourage risk taking.