An Experimental Study On Misattribution Of Reference Dependence

In recent years,a large number of literatures have made theoretical and empirical studies on reference dependence.Based on the theoretical model of reference dependence,we established a theoretical model of misattribution of reference dependence.According to the expectation-based reference-dependence theory,individuals will compare the final outcome in the uncertain situation with their previous expectations,so as to generate a sense of gain or loss.If individuals cannot completely separate these emotions from their past experiences,and attribute them to the outcome,they will overestimate or underestimate the outcome.Bias occurs when individuals make subsequent decisions based on past experience.In this paper,the theory is verified by the experiments of random task and random income.In the experiment of random task,the treatment group will be randomly assigned one of two kinds of different tasks while the control group directly be given one tasks.After performing the same number of tasks to gain the same income,participants' willingness to work are elicited.In the random income experiment,the treatment group will be randomly given one of two different incomes,while the control group directly be given an kind of income.After performing the same number of the same tasks to obtain the income,participants' willingness to work are elicited.In the random task experiment,we found no significant difference between the experimental group and the control group.In the random income experiment,we found evidence of misattribution to referencedependence,and this phenomenon is related to gender: the male make attribution bias to negative feelings of reference-dependence and thus reduce work intention,while women make attributions bias to positive feelings of reference-dependence and thus increase work intention.