Different Impact Of Descriptive Information And Experience On Risky Decision Making

Most of the previous studies about risky decision making presented the results and the corresponding probabilities of each option to the decision maker descriptively(descriptive information).In everyday life,however,not all the risky choices are made based on descriptive information.In many situations,decisions are commonly made using a combination of descriptive and experiential information.And many evidence from researches in risky choice showed that decisions based on experience differ significantly from decisions based on description(D-E Gap).What are the differences the two types of information exert on risky choices when presented alone or at the same time?Three studies were designed to explore this problem.In study 1,we used the sampling paradigm adopted from Hertwig et al.(2004).The results show that the risky choices based on the descriptive information are in accordance with the prospect theory,and the risky choices based on experience is different from the descriptive outcome.Subjects were riskier when making decisions based on experience.This phenomenon could be observed both at group and individual level.And the results about subjective estimation of probability and the reported influence of experience also validated the above conclusion.In study 2,subjects in the experimental group obtained both descriptive and empirical information,while subjects in the control group received only one type of them.We found that the choices have no significant difference between the subjects in the experimental group and the subjects only received empirical information,but the results were significantly different from those of the other control group.It means that subjects’ choices are more affected by experience.In study 3,we adopted a more realistic way to present empirical information.The results are the same as study 2,that is to say the influence of experience dominated the influence of description in the risky decision making and subjective estimation of probability.In addition,study 3 also explored whether the information credibility of description mediates the relationship between deviation of probability behind two kinds of information and the risky choice.The results show that the mediation exists only when the probability of empirical information is higher than the description information,that is,larger deviation causes more risk taking by reducing the credibility of the description.The above conclusions provide new evidence for the description-experience gap.Additionally,the results exhibit the impact of experience is larger than description,when two types of information are presented at the same time,and the mechanism is explored.These conclusions also remind researchers giving more attention to risky choices based on experience.