Causes of Ambiguity Aversion: Known versus Unknown Preferences.

S.T. Trautmann, F.M. Vieider, P.P. Wakker*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Ambiguity aversion appears to have subtle psychological causes. Curley, yates, and abrams found that the fear of negative evaluation by others (fne) increases ambiguity aversion. This paper introduces a design in which preferences can be private information of individuals, so that fne can be avoided entirely. Thus, we can completely control for fne and other social factors, and can determine exactly to what extent ambiguity aversion is driven by such social factors. In our experiment ambiguity aversion, while appearing as commonly found in the presence of fne, disappears entirely if fne is eliminated. Implications are discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)225-243
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of Risk and Uncertainty
Volume36
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2008

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