Economics Seminar

Speaker: Federico Atzori (Università di Cagliari) - Altruistic excuse to risk. Experimental evidence on prosocial risk-taking

Abstract - Drawing on recent advancements in marketing strategies and theories of karma belief and prosocial risk-taking, this study presents a novel model and lottery experiment aimed at examining the influence of altruism on risk-taking behavior and exploring the presence of an excuse-to-risk phenomenon. Employing a between-subjects design, we create three experimental conditions: the first group subjects (control) played the standard Holt and Laury lottery. The second group subjects (karma belief) could engage in a good behavior task by donating to a chosen charity before completing the lottery task and the third group (prosocial risk) faced a customized lottery where they could choose between a safe outcome against a risky payoff for themselves plus a certain amount to a chosen charity organization. Our research focuses on whether the latter two groups exhibit a reduced aversion to risk. Results indicate the presence of altruistic excuse-to-risk behavior within the prosocial risk-taking group, highlighting a gender effect among male participants who are, however, also the least altruistic. Conversely, female participants appeared more altruistic but showed an excuse-not-to-give, which led them to risk less.