文章基本信息

标题：Reference Point Heterogeneity
本地全文：下载
作者：Terzi, Ayse ; Koedijk, Kees ; Noussair, Charles N. 等
期刊名称：Frontiers in Psychology
电子版ISSN：1664-1078
出版年度：2016
卷号：7
页码：1347-1356
DOI：10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01347
出版社：Frontiers Media
摘要：It is well-established that, when confronted with a decision to be taken under risk, individuals use reference payoﬀ levels as important inputs. The purpose of this paper is to study which reference points characterize decisions in a setting in which there are several plausible reference levels of payoﬀ. We report an experiment, in which we investigate which of four potential reference points: (1) a population average payoﬀ level, (2) the announced expected payoﬀ of peers in a similar decision situation, (3) a historical average level of earnings that others have received in the same task, and (4) an announced anticipated individual payoﬀ level, best describes decisions in a decontextualized risky decision making task. We ﬁnd heterogeneity among individuals in the reference points they employ. The population average payoﬀ level is the modal reference point, followed by experimenter’s stated expectation of a participant’s individual earnings, followed in turn by the average earnings of other participants in previous sessions of the same experiment. A sizeable share of individuals show multiple reference points simultaneously. The reference point that best ﬁts the choices of the individual is not aﬀected by a shock to her income.
关键词：reference point; experiment; Decision Making; risk; lotteries