The current field study compares the time preferences of young adults of similar ages but in two very different environments, one more dangerous and uncertain than the other. Soldiers, college ...students and a control group of teenagers answered questionnaires about their time preferences. During mandatory service, soldiers live in a violent atmosphere where they face great uncertainty about the near future and high risk of mortality (measured by probability of survival). University students and teenagers live in much calmer environment and are tested for performance only periodically. The soldier-subjects show relatively high subjective discount rates when compared to the other two groups. We suggest that the higher subjective discount rate among soldiers can be the result of high perceived risk in the army as an institution, or higher mortality risk.
This article, in the field of behavioral economics, deals with the impact of technology on the human decision‐making process. Many companies worldwide offer technologies (platforms, devices, search ...engines, etc.) that purport to help a person in the various phases of decision making but still leave the final decision in the hands of the human being. Technologies may help a person make more intelligent and informed decisions, but they may also expose a person to many decision‐making biases. We review the leading factors that cause decision‐making biases due to the use of technologies and build a theoretical model for analyzing technologies that examines the feasibility of using them for decision making. We also demonstrate the implementation of this model on products of four well‐known companies: Google, ProQuest, MobilEye, and Waze. Our model contributes to the literature on the impact of technology on human decision making and provides an important basis for future research on this topic.
This paper proposes a theoretical model for analyzing the decision making process when using technologies, focusing on behavioral biases.
Achieving high vaccination rates is important for overcoming an epidemic. This study investigates the association between religious faith and intentions to become vaccinated against COVID-19 in ...Israel and Japan. Most of Israel’s population is monotheistic, whereas most Japanese are unaffiliated with any religion. Therefore, our findings might be applicable to various countries that differ in their religions and levels of religiosity. We conducted almost identical large-scale surveys four times in Israel and five times in Japan from March to June 2020 to obtain panel data. We found that intentions of getting vaccinated depend on people’s level of religiosity in a non-linear way. Those who have strong religious beliefs are less likely to become vaccinated than those who say they are less religious. Two other factors that play a role in this relationship are religious denomination in Israel and identifying with a religion in Japan.
•We illustrate differences in financial information comprehension in a digital versus a paper environment.•Participants provided with short paper financial reports answered 10% more of the difficult ...questions correctly compared to those receiving a longer paper report.•Participants who received a digital financial report did significantly better when given longer reports.•Our results contribute to the literature regarding effective information communication.•These results are also relevant to policy discussions about transitioning to exclusively digital disclosures.
Past research has demonstrated that many individuals are not well equipped to make financial decisions and hence depend greatly on the flow and quality of financial information. Various governments are implementing reforms aimed at improving the quality of pension financial communication. Certain countries are requiring a move to short-form pension reporting, and some are requiring digital reporting instead of (or in some cases, in addition to) paper reporting. In a series of experiments, we show that the ability to locate information in financial reports is sensitive to the length of the report and to the communication form.
The individual willingness to trust is compared to the inclination to take lottery risk in six distinct scenarios, controlling the return distributions. Trust responds to changes in the admissible ...return levels, but exhibits significantly smaller responsiveness to return expectations compared to parallel risk-taking. Paired comparisons suggest that the investors sacrifice 5% of the expected payoff to trust anonymous responders. Trust is more calculated and volatile for males, while appearing relatively stable for females. The results connect with evidence regarding physiological differences between trust and risk-taking, and in addition suggest that trust is more of a distinctive trait for females compared to males. The paper broadly discusses the results and their implications, connecting to diverse streams in the trust literature.
The current study uses the unique setting created by the coronavirus crisis in China during the peak period of the pandemic to examine the behavioral factors affecting the decision of the Chinese ...people to adopt the precautionary actions recommended by the government.
Using the social app WeChat, we conducted a cross sectional study of the Chinese people in mid-February 2020.
Our results show that higher levels of dispositional optimism and support for the government's actions for managing the epidemic were positively correlated with the compliance level. In addition, women and married participants were more likely to comply with the recommendations.
Optimism and support for government actions should be considered when promoting policies related to health behavior such as social distancing.
The current field study used unique data collected in Israel in July 2014, during a military operation that the Israel Defence Forces (I.D.F.) conducted in the Gaza Strip, in reaction to the ...thousands of missiles launched from there into Israel. During this operation, the new Iron Dome anti-missile defence system was used to protect Israelis exposed to missile attacks. The study examined factors that correlate with decisions to comply with I.D.F. defence instructions regarding behaviour during missile attacks. In addition, the study examined the relationship between attitudes towards the Iron Dome technology and emotions, risk perceptions, and the decision to comply with I.D.F. defence instructions. The results indicate that stronger positive opinions towards Iron Dome were correlated with lower levels of fear and anger, and beliefs that participant's chances of being injured by a missile were lower than they had been during previous military operation. In addition, better compliance with I.D.F. defence instructions correlated with being more fearful, angrier at Hamas, living closer to Gaza Strip, and having more positive opinions about Iron Dome. The findings also indicate gender differences with respect to factors correlated with risk perceptions, opinions regarding Iron Dome, and precautionary actions during attacks.
•The behavioral explanation for the pre-holiday effect is called “holiday euphoria”.•We examine how the holiday period influences the time preference of students.•We compare students' SDR before and ...after the Passover holiday in Israel.•The holiday euphoria induces impulsive behavior, making people more present-oriented.•Holiday euphoria affects people's immediate mood, and affected by pessimism.
The pre-holiday effect is a well-documented phenomenon, especially for financial markets. The behavioral explanation for the pre-holiday effect is called “holiday euphoria.” In the current paper, we examine how the holiday period influences the time preference of students, by comparing their subjective discount rate before and after the Passover holiday in Israel. Although there is considerable research on the pre-holiday effect and its influence on investors in the capital market, we are unaware of any prior research on the influence of the pre-holiday effect on time preference. Our results suggest that holiday euphoria induces impulsive behavior, making people more present-oriented (having a higher subjective discount rate) before the holiday. We also show how holiday euphoria affects people's immediate mood (feeling down in the present), and how it is affected by their level of pessimism.
This article suggests that learning about basic concepts concerning the risk and return of assets will reduce perceived risk. We show experimentally that people who learn about these basic concepts ...are willing to allocate more money to risky assets and consider the asset's return relative to its risk.
Don’t Let Them Fool You Lahav, Eyal; Shavit, Tal; Benzion, Uri
Young (Stockholm, Sweden),
06/2018, Letnik:
26, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
In the last 20 years, adolescents have gradually become very important clients for the banking industry. The current study investigates, using data collected in a survey, whether adolescents offered ...two options for investing in a saving certificate choose the financially preferable one and whether this choice is related to their time preference, after controlling for gender and bank account ownership. The participants were 270 adolescents from public high schools in Israel. The findings indicate that approximately 40 per cent made the inferior financial decision. However, those with a bank account were less likely to decide poorly, possibly indicating that having an account reduces financial illiteracy. Moreover, selecting the financially inferior choice correlates with a higher subjective discount rate (higher present-orientation). A gender effect is also found; girls have higher subjective discount rates, and this effect is stronger for girls with a bank account. Policy implications regarding financial education programmes are discussed.
PDF
