State dependent valuation: the effect of deprivation on risk preferences.

ABSTRACT: The internal state of an organism affects its choices. Previous studies in various non-human animals have demonstrated a complex, and in some cases non-monotonic, interaction between internal state and risk preferences. Our aim was to examine the systematic effects of deprivation on human decision-making across various reward types. Using both a non-parametric approach and a classical economic analysis, we asked whether the risk attitudes of human subjects towards money, food and water rewards would change as a function of their internal metabolic state. Our findings replicate some previous work suggesting that, on average, humans become more risk tolerant in their monetary decisions, as they get hungry. However, our specific approach allowed us to make two novel observations about the com

SUBMITTER: Levy DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3554724 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature