CRED Researchers to speak at Society for Judgement and Decision Making conference

On 16-19 November 2012, three CRED researchers will present at the Society for Judgement and Decision Making’s annual conference in Minneapolis.

Ponnam Arora (CRED Affiliated Researcher) will present a talk titled “Endowment Effect and Goal Tradeoffs: A Field Study with Argentine Farmers;” Christoph Ungemach (CRED Postdoctoral Research Scientist) will speak on “Redundant Information as a Choice Architecture Tool: Shifting weights in Environmental Decisions;” KatherineThompson (CRED Graduate Student) will give a talk entitled “What We Think About When We Think About Probability: Process data illuminates the description-experience gap;” and Lisa Zavral (CRED Graduate Student) will speak about “Age Differences in Affective Forecasting, Affect Dynamics and Experienced Emotions.”

Abstracts for these talks appear below. For additional information please access: http://www.sjdm.org/

Endowment Effect and Goal Tradeoffs: A Field Study with Argentine Farmers

Edwards, Stephen (Manhattan College, School of Business); Paliotta, Janine (Manhattan College, School of Business); Ledwidge, Keelan (Manhattan College, School of Business); Podesta, Guillermo (University of Miami & CRED, Columbia University; Arora, Poonam (Manhattan College, School of Business & CRED, Columbia University)

Redundant Information as a Choice Architecture Tool: Shifting weights in Environmental Decisions

Ungemach, Christoph (Columbia University); Adrian Camilleri (Duke); Elke Weber (Columbia University); Rick Larrick (Duke); Eric Johnson (Columbia University)

A primary source of human-induced CO2 emissions is transportation and fuel-efficient vehicles offer a large potential to reduce such emissions. However, research seems to suggest that consumers often weight operating costs less than upfront costs when deciding which vehicle to buy. We provide empirical evidence from two experiments showing how providing additional redundant information in the form of highly correlated metrics (e.g., mpg, annual fuel cost, emission ratings…) can be utilized as a new choice architecture tool to increase the weight allocated to fuel-efficiency information and nudge consumers towards selecting more environmentally friendly cars.

What We Think About When We Think About Probability: Process data illuminates the description-experience gap

Thompson, Katherine F (Columbia); Weber, Elke U (Columbia)

The Description-Experience Gap in risky choice is typically measured between-subjects, and although well studied, is not entirely understood. We validated a within-subjects design that replicates prior results, examines novel choice pairings, and rules out memory effects. Study 2 collected process data and indicated that choices are driven by seeking certain decks, though not avoidance of others. Study 3 examined the common-ratio effect and appears to contradict prior findings, suggesting that the results of Studies 1 and 2 may depend heavily on uncertainty aversion. Study 4 replicates the unexpected choice pattern from Study 3, and examines preference stability over repeated choices.

Age Differences in Affective Forecasting, Affect Dynamics and Experienced Emotions

Zaval, Lisa (Columbia University); Weber, Elke U. (Columbia University); Johnson, Eric J. (Columbia University)