An Analysis of Risk Taking in Terms of Power and Comparison Level

摘要

An attempt was made in this paper to account for a person's showing a consistent preference between two gambles that differ in variance (i. e., in degree of riskinesss) but have the same expected value (where expected value is defined as the sum of all the possible payoffs from the gamble, each one multiplied by its objective probability of occurrence). Researchers in decision theory, starting from the assumption that the person must be maximizing utility, have advanced two major explanations for such a preference.