IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/mktlet/v34y2023i1d10.1007_s11002-022-09633-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of labeling on risk taking in “leveling-up” decisions: ascending versus descending permutations and ending in terminal values

Author

Listed:
  • Haoyu Liu

    (SEM 310, ShanghaiTech University)

  • Lifeng Yang

    (SEM 313, ShanghaiTech University)

  • Duane T. Wegener

    (The Ohio State University)

Abstract

Many decisions involve attempts to advance (level up) despite risk of losing what has already been gained. This research examined how permutations (ascending or descending sequences of level labels) and labels ending in terminal values of the sequence affect risk taking. Across three experiments using a “win-more-or-lose-it-all” game, participants made a series of decisions to level up or opt out and retain previously obtained chances to win. Consistent with hypotheses that approaching a terminal value in a sequence (such as a countdown sequence ending in 1) would make risk loom large, results consistently showed earlier opt-out decisions for descending permutations ending with a terminal value than for ascending sequences or descending sequences that did not end in a terminal value. Such tendencies were also stronger for numerical than for alphabetical labels (perhaps because of greater familiarity with countdown sequences in the numerical domain).

Suggested Citation

  • Haoyu Liu & Lifeng Yang & Duane T. Wegener, 2023. "Effects of labeling on risk taking in “leveling-up” decisions: ascending versus descending permutations and ending in terminal values," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 125-138, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:34:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s11002-022-09633-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-022-09633-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11002-022-09633-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11002-022-09633-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yan, Dengfeng & Duclos, Rod, 2013. "Making sense of numbers: Effects of alphanumeric brands on consumer inference," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 179-184.
    2. Charles A. Holt & Susan K. Laury, 2002. "Risk Aversion and Incentive Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1644-1655, December.
    3. Roger Hartley & Gauthier Lanot & Ian Walker, 2014. "Who Really Wants To Be A Millionaire? Estimates Of Risk Aversion From Gameshow Data," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 861-879, September.
    4. Utpal M. Dholakia & Itamar Simonson, 2005. "The Effect of Explicit Reference Points on Consumer Choice and Online Bidding Behavior," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 206-217, October.
    5. Lester Lusher & Chuan He & Stephen Fick, 2018. "Are professional basketball players reference-dependent?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(36), pages 3937-3948, August.
    6. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Ellie J. Kyung & Manoj Thomas & Aradhna Krishna, 2017. "When Bigger Is Better (and When It Is Not): Implicit Bias in Numeric Judgments," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(1), pages 62-79.
    8. Ran Kivetz & Oleg Urminsky & Yuhuang Zheng, 2006. "The Goal-Gradient Hypothesis Resurrected: Purchase Acceleration, Illusionary Goal Progress, and Customer Retention," Natural Field Experiments 00658, The Field Experiments Website.
    9. Zeelenberg, Marcel & van Dijk, Eric, 1997. "A reverse sunk cost effect in risky decision making: Sometimes we have too much invested to gamble," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 677-691, November.
    10. Milton Friedman & L. J. Savage, 1952. "The Expected-Utility Hypothesis and the Measurability of Utility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(6), pages 463-463.
    11. Minjung Koo & Ayelet Fishbach, 2012. "The Small-Area Hypothesis: Effects of Progress Monitoring on Goal Adherence," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(3), pages 493-509.
    12. Amar Cheema & Dipankar Chakravarti & Atanu R. Sinha, 2012. "Bidding Behavior in Descending and Ascending Auctions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(5), pages 779-800, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christoph Bühren & Thorben C. Kundt, 2013. "Worker or Shirker – Who Evades More Taxes? A Real Effort Experiment," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201326, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    2. Ali E. Abbas & Il-Horn Hann, 2010. "Measuring Risk Aversion in a Name-Your-Own-Price Channel," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 7(1), pages 123-136, March.
    3. Whitle, Richard & Rae, Jonathan & Pyke, Chris, 2015. "An empirical investigation into the propensity of reckless decision making within the high pressure environment of Deal or No Deal," MPRA Paper 66832, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Adriaan Soetevent & Liting Zhou, 2016. "Loss Modification Incentives for Insurers Under Expected Utility and Loss Aversion," De Economist, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 41-67, March.
    5. Scott G Wallace & Jordan Etkin & Johar GitaEditor & Rajesh BagchiAssociate Editor, 2018. "How Goal Specificity Shapes Motivation: A Reference Points Perspective," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(5), pages 1033-1051.
    6. Ronald Bosman & Frans Van Winden, 2010. "Global Risk, Investment and Emotions," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 77(307), pages 451-471, July.
    7. Tarnanidis, Theodore & Owusu-Frimpong, Nana & Nwankwo, Sonny & Omar, Maktoba, 2015. "Why we buy? Modeling consumer selection of referents," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 24-36.
    8. Santana, Shelle & Thomas, Manoj & Morwitz, Vicki G., 2020. "The Role of Numbers in the Customer Journey," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 138-154.
    9. Negrini, Marcello & Riedl, Arno & Wibral, Matthias, 2022. "Sunk cost in investment decisions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 1105-1135.
    10. Klemens Keldenich & Marcus Klemm, 2014. "Double or nothing?! Small groups making decisions under risk in “Quiz Taxi”," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 77(2), pages 243-274, August.
    11. Marcello Negrini & Arno Riedl & Matthias Wibral, 2020. "Still in Search of the Sunk Cost Bias," CESifo Working Paper Series 8623, CESifo.
    12. Kerri Brick & Martine Visser & Justine Burns, 2012. "Risk Aversion: Experimental Evidence from South African Fishing Communities," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 94(1), pages 133-152.
    13. Shunda, Nicholas, 2009. "Auctions with a buy price: The case of reference-dependent preferences," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 645-664, November.
    14. Amrei Lahno & Marta Serra-Garcia, 2015. "Peer effects in risk taking: Envy or conformity?," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 73-95, February.
    15. Ispano, Alessandro & Schwardmann, Peter, 2017. "Cooperating over losses and competing over gains: A social dilemma experiment," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 329-348.
    16. Goytom Abraha Kahsay & Daniel Osberghaus, 2018. "Storm Damage and Risk Preferences: Panel Evidence from Germany," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(1), pages 301-318, September.
    17. Chen, Yanyan & Mandler, Timo & Meyer-Waarden, Lars, 2021. "Three decades of research on loyalty programs: A literature review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 179-197.
    18. Uri Ben-Zion & Jan Pieter Krahnen & TAL SHAVIT, 2007. "Subjective Evaluation Of Delayed Risky Outcomes: An Experimental Approach," Working Papers 0709, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Economics.
    19. Attema, Arthur E. & Brouwer, Werner B.F., 2012. "A test of independence of discounting from quality of life," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 22-34.
    20. Stefano DellaVigna, 2009. "Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 315-372, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:34:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s11002-022-09633-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.