The Effect of Different Presentation forms of Ambiguous Bets on Ambiguity Attitude

Abstract

An online experiment is conducted to examine how different presentation forms of ambiguous bets affect ambiguity attitude. Ambiguity aversion was expected for all treatments. However, I find lowest ambiguity aversion for the temperature treatment and the highest ambiguity aversion for the stock price treatment. In addition, it was expected that the urn treatment would provide the highest willingness to pay, due to the illusion of control. Significant ambiguity aversion was found for three of the four treatments, with the exception of the temperature treatment. Ambiguity aversion was highest for the spinner treatment. Significant differences are found in willingness to pay and ambiguity aversion between the stock price treatment and the urn treatment. Furthermore, it was found that risk preferences conducted from the risk preference measure do not affect ambiguity aversion. Keywords: ambiguity attitude, willingness to pay, risk preference, presentation forms, financial literacy, understandability