IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/anp/en2009/123.html

Risk-seeking behaviorof preschool children in a gambling task

Author

Listed:
  • Bruno César de Melo Moreira
  • Raul Matsushita
  • Sergio DaSilva

Abstract

A recent neurobiology study showed that monkeys systematically prefer risky targets in a visual gambling task. We set a similar experiment with preschool children to assess their attitudes toward risk and found the children, like the monkeys, to be risk seeking. This suggests that adult humans are not born risk averse, but become risk averse. Our experiment also suggests that this behavioral change may be due to learning from negative experiences in their risky choices. We also showed that though emotional states and predetermined prenatal testosterone can influence children’s preferences toward risk, these factors could not override learning experiences.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno César de Melo Moreira & Raul Matsushita & Sergio DaSilva, 2011. "Risk-seeking behaviorof preschool children in a gambling task," Anais do XXXVII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 37th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 123, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    • Handle: RePEc:anp:en2009:123
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.anpec.org.br/encontro2009/inscricao.on/arquivos/000-6a90344745e0ac7023ba7d5a1295adcc.doc
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Risk aversion is learned behavior
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2009-07-22 04:55:00

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Matthias Sutter & Martin G. Kocher & Daniela Glätzle-Rützler & Stefan T. Trautmann, 2013. "Impatience and Uncertainty: Experimental Decisions Predict Adolescents' Field Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(1), pages 510-531, February.
    3. Andreoni, James & Di Girolamo, Amalia & List, John A. & Mackevicius, Claire & Samek, Anya, 2020. "Risk preferences of children and adolescents in relation to gender, cognitive skills, soft skills, and executive functions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 729-742.
    4. Da Silva, Sergio & Baldo, Dinora & Matsushita, Raul, 2011. "Biological correlates of the Allais paradox - updated," MPRA Paper 32747, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Da Silva, Sergio & Moreira, Bruno & Da Costa Jr, Newton, 2014. "Preschoolers and the Endowment Effect," MPRA Paper 60568, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah & Deckers, Thomas & Falk, Armin & Kosse, Fabian, 2014. "How Does Socio-Economic Status Shape a Child's Personality?," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100285, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    7. Solnais, Céline & Andreu-Perez, Javier & Sánchez-Fernández, Juan & Andréu-Abela, Jaime, 2013. "The contribution of neuroscience to consumer research: A conceptual framework and empirical review," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 68-81.
    8. Da Silva, Sergio & De Faveri, Dinorá & Correa, Ana & Matsushita, Raul, 2017. "Social preferences, financial literacy and intertemporal choice," MPRA Paper 79535, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. da Silva, Eduardo Borges & Silva, Thiago Christiano & Constantino, Michel & Amancio, Diego Raphael & Tabak, Benjamin Miranda, 2020. "Overconfidence and the 2D:4D ratio," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    10. Da Silva, Sergio & De Faveri, Dinorá & Matsushita, Raul, 2017. "Personality influences hyperbolic discounting," MPRA Paper 83171, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Sergio Da Silva & Bruno Moreira & Newton Da Costa Jr, 2015. "Handedness and digit ratio predict overconfidence in cognitive and motor skill tasks in a sample of preschoolers," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 35(2), pages 1087-1097.
    12. Castillo, Marco, 2020. "Negative Childhood Experiences and Risk Aversion: Evidence from Children Exposed to Domestic Violence," IZA Discussion Papers 13320, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Sutter, Matthias & Zoller, Claudia & Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela, 2019. "Economic behavior of children and adolescents – A first survey of experimental economics results," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 98-121.
    14. A. Felipe Rodrigues & Newton Da Costa & Sergio Da Silva, 2011. "Overconfidence and excess entry: a comparison between students and managers," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(3), pages 2549-2557.
    15. Da Silva, Sergio & Moreira, Bruno & Da Costa Jr, Newton, 2014. "2D:4D Digit Ratio Predicts Delay of Gratification in Preschoolers," MPRA Paper 60570, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Hideki HASHIMOTO & Hidehiko ICHIMURA & Satoshi SHIMIZUTANI, 2013. "Stability of Preference against Aging and Health Shocks: A comparison between Japan and the United States," Discussion papers 13068, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    17. Da Silva, Sergio & Matsushita, Raul & De Carvalho, Mateus, 2015. "Prosocial People Take Better Care of Their Own Future Well-Being," MPRA Paper 68452, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Andreas C. Drichoutis & Rodolfo M. Nayga, 2015. "Do risk and time preferences have biological roots?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 82(1), pages 235-256, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D87 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Neuroeconomics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:anp:en2009:123. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Rodrigo Zadra Armond (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/anpecea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.