IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/sfb373/200225.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Worry and the illusion of safety: Evidence from a real-objects experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Schade, Christian
  • Kunreuther, Howard

Abstract

We analyze the impact of an individual's tendency to worry on willingness to pay (WTP) for a protective measure. We report on the results of a controlled experiment with real objects at stake. Worry was measured with the Worry Domains Questionnaire, an instrument determining an individual's tendency to (non-pathological) worry. Although the loss probability was relatively high and exactly specified, we find that the tendency to worry has in general a positive effect on WTP for protective measures. However when the objects at stake are given to our respondents, high worriers significantly reduce their WTP for protection whereas low worriers are unaffected. We call this tendency of high worriers a safety illusion and relate it to findings on automatic self- regulation, transitional objects in childhood, and studies on the illusion of control. High worriers appear to make more use of all these mechanisms than low worriers because they have more experience in easing their anxiety.

Suggested Citation

  • Schade, Christian & Kunreuther, Howard, 2002. "Worry and the illusion of safety: Evidence from a real-objects experiment," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 2002,25, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:sfb373:200225
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/65291/1/726376094.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McClelland, Gary H & Schulze, William D & Coursey, Don L, 1993. "Insurance for Low-Probability Hazards: A Bimodal Response to Unlikely Events," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 95-116, August.
    2. Hogarth, Robin M & Kunreuther, Howard, 1995. "Decision Making under Ignorance: Arguing with Yourself," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 15-36, January.
    3. Richard H. Thaler, 2008. "Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(1), pages 15-25, 01-02.
    4. Johnson, Eric J & Hershey, John & Meszaros, Jacqueline & Kunreuther, Howard, 1993. "Framing, Probability Distortions, and Insurance Decisions," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 35-51, August.
    5. Hsee, Christopher K & Kunreuther, Howard C, 2000. "The Affection Effect in Insurance Decisions," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 141-159, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Schade, Christian & Kunreuther, Howard & Kaas, Klaus Peter, 2002. "Low-probability insurance decisions: The role of concern," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 2002,23, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    2. Levesque, Moren & Schade, Christian, 2005. "Intuitive optimizing: experimental findings on time allocation decisions with newly formed ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 313-342, May.
    3. Bernadette Kamleitner & Erich Kirchler, 2006. "Personal loan users’ mental integration of payment and consumption," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 281-294, December.

    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. David H. Krantz & Howard C. Kunreuther, 2007. "Goals and plans in decision making," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 2, pages 137-168, June.
    2. repec:cup:judgdm:v:2:y:2007:i::p:137-168 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Marieke Huysentruyt & Daniel Read, 2008. "How do people value extended warranties?: Evidence from two field surveys," Department of Economics Working Papers 2008_02, Durham University, Department of Economics.
    4. Zimmer, Anja & Schade, Christian & Gründl, Helmut, 2009. "Is default risk acceptable when purchasing insurance? Experimental evidence for different probability representations, reasons for default, and framings," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 11-23, February.
    5. Mark Browne & Christian Knoller & Andreas Richter, 2015. "Behavioral bias and the demand for bicycle and flood insurance," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 141-160, April.
    6. Carolyn Kousky & Erwann Michel-Kerjan, 2017. "Examining Flood Insurance Claims in the United States: Six Key Findings," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 84(3), pages 819-850, September.
    7. Johannes G. Jaspersen, 2016. "Hypothetical Surveys And Experimental Studies Of Insurance Demand: A Review," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 83(1), pages 217-255, January.
    8. Marieke Huysentruyt & Daniel Read, 2010. "How do people value extended warranties? Evidence from two field surveys," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 197-218, June.
    9. Miaolei (Liam) Jia & Xiuping Li & Aradhna Krishna & Lisa E Bolton & Darren W Dahl & Margaret C Campbell, 2020. "Contraction with Unpacking: When Unpacking Leads to Lower Calorie Budgets [See What You Want to See: Motivational Influences on Visual Perception]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 46(5), pages 853-870.
    10. Anna Dreber & David Rand & Nils Wernerfelt & Justin Garcia & Miguel Vilar & J. Lum & Richard Zeckhauser, 2011. "Dopamine and risk choices in different domains: Findings among serious tournament bridge players," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 19-38, August.
    11. Jean Desrochers & J. Francois Outreville, 2013. "Uncertainty, Ambiguity and Risk Taking: an experimental investigation of consumer behavior and demand for insurance," ICER Working Papers 10-2013, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    12. Michael Theil, 2003. "The Value of Personal Contact in Marketing Insurance: Client Judgments of Representativeness and Mental Availability," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 6(2), pages 145-157, September.
    13. Lunn, Pete & McGowan, Féidhlim & Howard, Noel, 2018. "Do some financial product features negatively affect consumer decisions? a review of evidence," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS78.
    14. Andreas Richter & Jochen Ruß & Stefan Schelling, 2019. "Insurance customer behavior: Lessons from behavioral economics," Risk Management and Insurance Review, American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 22(2), pages 183-205, July.
    15. de Meza, David & Diane Reyniers, Liza C. Fessner, 2015. "Evidence that waste aversion begets insurance aversion," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 75-77.
    16. Botzen, W.J.W. & van den Bergh, J.C.J.M., 2012. "Risk attitudes to low-probability climate change risks: WTP for flood insurance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 151-166.
    17. Botond Koszegi & Adam Szeidl, 2013. "A Model of Focusing in Economic Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(1), pages 53-104.
    18. Carin Huber & Tobias Schlager, 2018. "Testing the risk as feeling and risk as analysis perspective for insurance: the antecedents of purchasing unit-linked life insurance products," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(1), pages 25-37, March.
    19. Philippe P. F. M. van de Calseyde & Gideon Keren & Marcel Zeelenberg, 2013. "The insured victim effect: When and why compensating harm decreases punishment recommendations," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 8(2), pages 161-173, March.
    20. Weber, Martin & Keppe, Hans-Jurgen & Meyer-Delius, Gabriela, 2000. "The impact of endowment framing on market prices -- an experimental analysis," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 159-176, February.
    21. Erwann Michel‐Kerjan & Sabine Lemoyne de Forges & Howard Kunreuther, 2012. "Policy Tenure Under the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(4), pages 644-658, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:zbw:sfb373:200225. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfhubde.html .

    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.