Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
<mark>Journal publication date</mark> | 1/01/2021 |
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<mark>Journal</mark> | Judgment and Decision Making |
Issue number | 1 |
Volume | 16 |
Number of pages | 37 |
Pages (from-to) | 57-93 |
Publication Status | Published |
<mark>Original language</mark> | English |
The classic preference reversal phenomenon, where monetary evaluations contra-dict risky choices, has been argued to arise due to a focus on outcomes during the evaluation of alternatives, leading to overpricing of long-shot options. Such an ex-planation makes the implicit assumption that attentional shifts drive the phenomenon. We conducted an eye-tracking study to causally test this hypothesis by comparing a treatment based on cardinal, monetary evaluations with a different treatment avoiding a monetary frame. We find a significant treatment effect in the form of a shift in attention toward outcomes (relative to probabilities) when evaluations are monetary. Our evidence suggests that attentional shifts resulting from the monetary frame of evaluations are a driver of preference reversals.