IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/mktlet/v35y2024i4d10.1007_s11002-023-09712-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life insurance, loss aversion, and temporal orientation: a field experiment and replication with young adults

Author

Listed:
  • Simon J. Blanchard

    (Georgetown University)

  • Remi Trudel

    (Boston University)

Abstract

Young individuals rarely seek information about life insurance—a product that offers long-term benefits that might not motivate a desire to act now. Framing life insurance messaging as a gain in the present (e.g., “ensure your loved ones are protected today”) is thought to motivate younger individuals to seek information about insurance policies. A field experiment with a large life insurance issuer and a pre-registered experiment reveal that loss aversion and temporal orientation frames influences whether individuals aged 25–49 years shop for life insurance. Specifically, the results suggest that the superiority of gain frames over loss frames requires positioning the benefits well in the future, despite the need to act now. This study thus also contextualizes the realities and practical difficulty of framing financial products in ways that might interest a potentially vulnerable population.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon J. Blanchard & Remi Trudel, 2024. "Life insurance, loss aversion, and temporal orientation: a field experiment and replication with young adults," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 575-587, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:35:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s11002-023-09712-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-023-09712-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11002-023-09712-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11002-023-09712-4?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. Garrett A. Johnson & Randall A. Lewis & David H. Reiley, 2017. "When Less Is More: Data and Power in Advertising Experiments," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(1), pages 43-53, January.
    2. Hwang, In Do, 2024. "Behavioral aspects of household portfolio choice: Effects of loss aversion on life insurance uptake and savings," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA), pages 1029-1053.
    3. Leif Nelson & Duncan Simester & K. Sudhir, 2020. "Introduction to the Special Issue on Marketing Science and Field Experiments," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(6), pages 1033-1038, November.
    4. Bas Donkers & Peter Verhoef & Martijn Jong, 2007. "Modeling CLV: A test of competing models in the insurance industry," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 163-190, June.
    5. Yijia Lin & Martin F. Grace, 2007. "Household Life Cycle Protection: Life Insurance Holdings, Financial Vulnerability, and Portfolio Implications," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 74(1), pages 141-173, March.
    6. Kusum Ailawadi & Tat Chan & Puneet Manchanda & K. Sudhir, 2020. "Introduction to the Special Issue on Marketing Science and Health," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(3), pages 459-464, May.
    7. 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..
    8. Simon J Blanchard & Jacob Goldenberg & Koen Pauwels & David A Schweidel, 2022. "Promoting Data Richness in Consumer Research: How to Develop and Evaluate Articles with Multiple Data Sources [The Critical Role of Methodological Pluralism for Policy-Relevant Empirical Marketing ," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(2), pages 359-372.
    9. Eric Johnson & Suzanne Shu & Benedict Dellaert & Craig Fox & Daniel Goldstein & Gerald Häubl & Richard Larrick & John Payne & Ellen Peters & David Schkade & Brian Wansink & Elke Weber, 2012. "Beyond nudges: Tools of a choice architecture," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 487-504, June.
    10. John Payne & Namika Sagara & Suzanne Shu & Kirstin Appelt & Eric Johnson, 2013. "Life expectancy as a constructed belief: Evidence of a live-to or die-by framing effect," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 27-50, February.
    11. van Schie, Ron J.G. & Dellaert, Benedict G.C. & Donkers, Bas, 2015. "Promoting later planned retirement: Construal level intervention impact reverses with age," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 124-131.
    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. L. Robin Keller & Yitong Wang, 2017. "Information Presentation in Decision and Risk Analysis: Answered, Partly Answered, and Unanswered Questions," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(6), pages 1132-1145, June.
    2. Wu, Shang & Stevens, Ralph & Thorp, Susan, 2015. "Cohort and target age effects on subjective survival probabilities: Implications for models of the retirement phase," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 39-56.
    3. Cristiano Codagnone & Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri & Francesco Bogliacino & Francisco Lupiáñez-Villanueva & George Gaskell & Andriy Ivchenko & Pietro Ortoleva & Francesco Mureddu, 2016. "Labels as nudges? An experimental study of car eco-labels," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 33(3), pages 403-432, December.
    4. Katharina Momsen & Sebastian O. Schneider, 2022. "Motivated Reasoning, Information Avoidance, and Default Bias," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2022_03, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    5. Idris Adjerid & Alessandro Acquisti & George Loewenstein, 2019. "Choice Architecture, Framing, and Cascaded Privacy Choices," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 2267-2290, May.
    6. Eling, Martin & Ghavibazoo, Omid & Hanewald, Katja, 2021. "Willingness to take financial risks and insurance holdings: A European survey," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    7. Thomas Url, 2014. "Vorteile der Risikoübernahme in der klassischen Lebensversicherung," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 60603, March.
    8. Weijia Dai & Hyunjin Kim & Michael Luca, 2023. "Frontiers: Which Firms Gain from Digital Advertising? Evidence from a Field Experiment," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(3), pages 429-439, May.
    9. Philipp Schmitt & Steffen Meyer & Bernd Skiera, 2010. "Überprüfung des Zusammenhangs zwischen Weiterempfehlungsbereitschaft und Kundenwert," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 62(1), pages 30-59, February.
    10. Brigitte C. Madrian, 2014. "Applying Insights from Behavioral Economics to Policy Design," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 663-688, August.
    11. Mele, Cristina & Russo Spena, Tiziana & Kaartemo, Valtteri & Marzullo, Maria Luisa, 2021. "Smart nudging: How cognitive technologies enable choice architectures for value co-creation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 949-960.
    12. Hwang, In Do, 2024. "Behavioral aspects of household portfolio choice: Effects of loss aversion on life insurance uptake and savings," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(PA), pages 1029-1053.
    13. Song, In Jung & Park, Heejung & Park, Narang & Heo, Wookjae, 2019. "The effect of experiencing a death on life insurance ownership," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 170-176.
    14. Øystein Daljord & Carl F. Mela & Jason M. T. Roos & Jim Sprigg & Song Yao, 2023. "The Design and Targeting of Compliance Promotions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(5), pages 866-891, September.
    15. Brunette, Marielle & Jacob, Julien, 2019. "Risk aversion, prudence and temperance: An experiment in gain and loss," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 174-189.
    16. Thomas Meissner & Xavier Gassmann & Corinne Faure & Joachim Schleich, 2023. "Individual characteristics associated with risk and time preferences: A multi country representative survey," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 77-107, February.
    17. Delgado, Laura & Shealy, Tripp, 2018. "Opportunities for greater energy efficiency in government facilities by aligning decision structures with advances in behavioral science," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3952-3961.
    18. Daniels, David P. & Zlatev, Julian J., 2019. "Choice architects reveal a bias toward positivity and certainty," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 132-149.
    19. Ratchford, Brian & Soysal, Gonca & Zentner, Alejandro & Gauri, Dinesh K., 2022. "Online and offline retailing: What we know and directions for future research," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 152-177.
    20. Federica Teppa & Susan Thorp & Hazel Bateman, 2015. "Family, friends and framing: A cross-country study of subjective survival expectations," DNB Working Papers 491, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.

    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:35:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s11002-023-09712-4. 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.