%0 Report
        %A Angerer, Silvia
%A Dutcher, E. Glenn
%A Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela
%A Lergetporer, Philipp
%A Sutter, Matthias
        %T The Formation of Risk Preferences through Small-Scale Events
        %D 2021
        %8 2021 Aug
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 14679
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp14679
        %X Large, macroeconomic shocks in the past have been shown to influence economic decisions in the present. We study in an experiment with 743 subjects whether small-scale, seemingly negligible, events also affect the formation of risk preferences. In line with a reinforcement learning model, we find that subjects who won a random lottery took significantly more risk in a second lottery almost a year later. The same pattern emerges in another experiment with 136 subjects where the second lottery was played more than three years after the first lottery. So, small-scale, random, events affect the formation of risk preferences significantly.
        %K preference formation
%K risk preferences
%K reinforcement learning
%K experiment