Affect and protective decisions / Xin Piao.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Microformat

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Piao, Xin.

Contributor:

Kunreuther, Howard, advisor.

University of Pennsylvania.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Penn dissertations--Psychology.

Psychology--Penn dissertations.

Local Subjects:

Penn dissertations--Psychology.

Psychology--Penn dissertations.

Physical Description:

xiv, 222 pages : illustrations ; 29 cm

Production:

2003.

Summary:

This dissertation is an exploration of the role of affect towards an object at stake and probability presentation formats in protective decision making. This investigation is comprised of two studies, Study 1 addressing the role of affect, and Study 2 addressing the impact of probability presentation. The two studies are comprised of a total of six experiments. These experiments were implemented as on-line surveys on the World Wide Web. In Study 1, four experiments were conducted to examine the influence of affect towards the object at stake, manipulating affect both verbally and visually, in warranty decisions of both a short-term and long-term nature. It demonstrates that warranty decisions (purchase intention and maximum willingness to pay) are influenced by affective factors, which cannot be predicted by the change of other factors such as the subjective probabilities or repair cost estimates. In addition, the experiments show that the affect manipulations that are related to salient affect images, such as visual aids, are effective tools for manipulating affect in survey studies. In making their decisions, people use not only economic arguments, but also emotional arguments to support their decisions. Affect is also found to have an impact on warranty decisions over a longer period of time. Study 2 includes two experiments that investigate the impact of different forms of probability presentation on individuals' perception of the likelihood of an event and their insurance purchase decisions, as well as the impact of vivid descriptions in insurance decisions. Different probability presentation formats are suggested to be connected to affect by evoking different vivid mental images. These different presentation formats of the same stated probability, with and without visual aids, are found to lead to different subjective likelihoods of the event and different amounts of willingness to pay for insurance. The possible interaction between vividness and probability presentation is also discussed.

Notes:

Adviser: Howard Kunreuther.

Thesis (Ph.D. in Psychology) -- University of Pennsylvania, 2003.

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

University Microfilms order no: 3087451.

OCLC:

244972191