Relationship between ambiguity attitudes elicited from economic experiments and real-life behaviors related to disaster prevention, health, and the environment

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K01695
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 07040:Economic policy-related
• Research Institution: Ryukoku University
• Principal Investigator: Watanabe Masahide 龍谷大学, 経済学部, 教授 (50434783)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 曖昧性 / 曖昧性態度 / 予防行動

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study empirically examined the relationship between ambiguity attitudes elicited from a web experiment and flood preparedness behavior. The results obtained are as follows. 1) People tend to be less able to identify likelihoods for natural ambiguity than those for artificial ambiguity. 2) In the gain domain, people are more ambiguity averse to natural ambiguity than to artificial ambiguity. In the loss domain, people are more ambiguity-loving, but there is no difference in degree between natural and artificial ambiguity. 3) People with low cognitive reflection ability can less identify likelihoods under ambiguity. 4) People who cannot identify likelihoods tend not to engage in flood preparedness behavior. On the other hand, there is no statistically significant relationship between ambiguity aversion and flood preparedness behavior.

Free Research Field

経済学、応用計量経済学、リスクと不確実性の経済学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

曖昧性下の行動の理解や予測において曖昧性態度は重要な役割を果たす。曖昧性態度と現実行動との関連を検証した先行研究の多くは、利得領域での金銭くじに関連する人工的な曖昧性を対象としていた。本研究は、利得および損失領域で自然的および人工的な曖昧性に対する曖昧性態度を抽出し、水害対策行動との関連を大規模なオンライン実験から検証した。曖昧性態度は曖昧性をもたらす要因や結果領域に依存することが知られているため、本研究結果は曖昧性下の行動の理解において新たな知見を提供するものと考えられる。