The Effect Of Self-Other Psychological Distance On Risk Preference In The Gain And Loss Situations

Based on Construal level theory,this study uses three methods to manipulate self-other psychological distance,to investigate the differences of risk preference between making decisions for the self and the others in both gain and loss decision contexts.Also,three self-other psychological distance manipulation methods will be compared to check their validity.Experiment 1 used specific and abstract others to manipulate self-other psychological distance.Subjects need to give preference scores to two money schemes provided in the experiment when making decisions for themselves,specific others or abstract others in both gain and loss situations,including a risky choice(high desirability-low feasibility)and a conservative choice(low desirability-high feasibility).In experiment 2,similarity questionnaire were adopted to manipulate psychological distance.Participants were asked to making decisions between two choices for themselves,similar others and dissimilar others.Experiment 3 used a more direct method(IOS),which was revised by Niu et al.,to distinguish close and distance others,comparing the scores made by participants themselves,high-rating others and low-rating others.Results revealed that,firstly,under the framework of profit and loss,the mode of self-other risk decision preference is asymmetric.(1)Under the income situation,there is a significant difference in risk preference between self decision-making and decision-making for others;(2)there were no self-other risk preference differences in loss situation.Secondly,the psychological distance between others and decision makers influenced the self-other decision-making differences in risk preference in the gain and loss situations.(1)In the gain situation,compared to the scores made for the self,scores made for low-psychological-distance others(specific/similar/high-rating others)and high-psychological-distance others(abstract/dissimilar/low-rating others)were significantly higher on the risky choice(high desirability-low feasibility).Further more,participants who made decisions for dissimilar/low-rating others were notably more risk-seeking than similar/high-rating others.However,scores on risky choice between specific others and others have no differences.(2)There were no discrepancies between scores on risky choices made for the self and others,or low-psychological-distance others(specific/similar/high-rating others)and high-psychological-distance others(abstract/dissimilar/low-rating others)in loss situation.These results suggested that:(1)Task frame can effectively influence self-other decision-making in risk preferences.Subjects showed more risk-taking in loss situation than in gain situation.(2)Psychological distance between decision maker and the others can also affect the self-other decision-making in risk preferences in both gain and loss situation.With the increase of self-other psychological distance,subjects became more willing to take risks.(3)Compared to the measure of distinguishing specific and abstract others,the means of distinction between similar and dissimilar others or a direct measure(IOS)can manipulate and induce self-other psychological distance in more effective ways.