Let Me See You! A Video Experiment on the Social Dimension of Risk Preferences

19 Pages Posted: 4 Oct 2007

See all articles by Werner Güth

Werner Güth

Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods; Luiss Guido Carli University

M. Vittoria Levati

Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences - Strategic Interaction Group

Matteo Ploner

University of Trento - Department of Economics and Management; University of Trento

Date Written: April 2007

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that decision makers are less other-regarding when their own payoff is risky than when it is sure. Empirical observations also indicate that people care more about identifiable than unidentifiable others. In this paper, we report on an experiment designed to explore whether rendering the other identifiable − via a short speechless video − can affect the relation between other-regarding concerns and attitudes toward social risk. For this sake, we elicit risk attitudes under two treatments differing in whether the actor can see the other or not. We find that seeing the other does not affect behavior significantly: regardless of the treatment, individuals are mainly self-oriented as to social allocation of risk, though they are other-regarding with respect to expected payoff levels.

Keywords: Risk attitudes, other-regarding concerns, identifiability

JEL Classification: C90, D63, D81

Suggested Citation

Güth, Werner and Levati, M. Vittoria and Ploner, Matteo and Ploner, Matteo, Let Me See You! A Video Experiment on the Social Dimension of Risk Preferences (April 2007). Jena Economic Research Paper No. 2007-005, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1018591 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1018591

Werner Güth (Contact Author)

Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

Kurt-Schumacher-Str. 10
D-53113 Bonn, 53113
Germany

Luiss Guido Carli University ( email )

Via O. Tommasini 1
Rome, Roma 00100
Italy

M. Vittoria Levati

Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences - Strategic Interaction Group ( email )

D-07745 Jena
Germany

Matteo Ploner

University of Trento - Department of Economics and Management ( email )

Via Inama 5
Trento, I-38100
Italy

HOME PAGE: http://www4.unitn.it/People/en/Web/Persona/PER0000996

University of Trento ( email )

Via Giuseppe Verdi 26
Trento, Trento 38152
Italy

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