INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICAL ECONOMICS

Wulf Albers, Robin Pope, Reinhard Selten and Bodo Vogt

Working-Paper No. 317

December 1999

Abstract

Divide the decisionmaker´s future into: (i) a pre-outcome period (lasting from the decision until the outcome of that decision is known), and (ii) a sequel post-outcome period (beginning when the outcome becomes known). Anticipated emotions in both periods may influence the decision, in particular, with regard to an outcome that matters to the person, the enjoyable tension from not yet knowing what this outcome will be. In the experiments presented, lottery choice can be explained by this attraction to chance, and cannot be explained by either von Neumann-Morgenstern utility, or by rank dependent risk loving weights: attraction to chance is a separate motivator.