Decision Making Under Risk Across Different Contexts

Decision making under risk has been intensively studied; however, little is understood about how decision making under risk changes with increased ecological validity. The current study investigated whether increased ecological validity resulted in greater decision quality and a minimization of the description-experience gap. Whether presenting items as abstract monetary gambles or framed within a meaningful context, decision quality was higher for loss items when presented as a description, and for gain items when experienced. When the rare event was a nonzero gain or loss, decision quality was increased when abstract monetary gambles were presented as a description. When the rate event was a zero gain, higher decision quality resulted if the gamble was experienced. When the rare event was a zero loss, higher decision quality resulted if the gamble was presented as a description. Implications for future research are discussed, with regard to improving understanding of decision making under uncertainty.