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Abstract:
Studies have demonstrated an “affect gap” in risky choice, such that people choose differently when deciding between options with affect-rich outcomes than when deciding between options offering the outcomes’ affect-poor monetary equivalents. Demonstrations of the affect gap have focussed on outcomes triggering negative affect (e.g., medications with aversive side effects). We tested the existence of the affect gap with outcomes that trigger positive affect (features of a vacation package). Data from a process-tracing experiment (N = 63) show that compared to affect-poor choices, people made more risk-seeking choices in an affect-rich context. These choices were associated with a more strongly curved and elevated probability weighting function. The process data traces the differences in choice to lower attention paid to probability information in the affect-rich condition.
