Discrepancies in Risk Preference in Other-regarding Decision Making

Abstract

We explored the discrepancies in risk preference in other-regarding decision making from the perspective of construal level theory. We recruited 166 university undergraduates to participant in a 2 (other: close or distant) × 2 (role of the decision maker: deciding for others vs. predicting the decisions of others) × 2 (domain: gain or loss) experiment. Results showed that participants were more risk seeking in distant other-regarding decisions than in close other-regarding decisions, when predicting the decisions of others than when deciding for others, and in the loss domain than in the gain domain. Such effects were stronger in the gain domain than in the loss domain. These findings suggest that people's risk preferences in other-regarding decision making are changeable, depending on whom they decide for and which role they play.