The Impact of Incentives Upon Risky Choice Experiments

Much of the evidence raising doubts about expected utility theory (EUT) comes from experiments involving hypothetical decisions. Most of the rest of the evidence comes from experiments where respondents are asked to make a large number of decisions, knowing that only one of these will provide the basis for payment. Concerns have often been expressed about the "realness" of such data, and their reliability as a basis for criticizing EUT and promoting alternative theories. The present article reviews this debate and reports new experimental results that directly address this issue.