Four Experiments on Sunk-In Probability Beliefs and Reference Points

Four laboratory experiments investigate whether probability beliefs must 'sink in' to become behavior-affecting reference points, as opposed to merely being lagged. The study replicates past experiments on Kőszegi and Rabin's model of expectations-based reference-dependent preferences, adding new visual and physical sink-in manipulations. The author is Ori Heffetz from the University of California, Berkeley.

Use Cases

• Testing the KR model's predictions based on the 'sunk-in' hypothesis described in the experiments.
• Comparing behavioral outcomes in endowment-effect versus effort-provision settings as mentioned in the findings.
• Analyzing the impact of visual and physical probability impressions on reference point formation.
• Replicating and extending past experimental designs on expectations-based reference dependence.

Strengths

• Data originates from four controlled laboratory experiments designed to test a specific hypothesis.
• Study replicates and extends past experimental designs, allowing for direct comparison of findings.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and sample size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

University of California, Berkeley

Collection Method

Laboratory experiments with sink-in manipulations.