Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/25728 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
Jena Economic Research Papers No. 2008,044
Publisher: 
Friedrich Schiller University Jena and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
In economic theory, utility depends on past, present and future outcomes. The experiment described in this paper suggests that utility also depends on people's attitudes, and that it can easily be manipulated through these attitudes. The results imply, first, that purely outcome-based models of individual utility may be incomplete. Second, that reference-states are not determined completely endogenously but can be influenced from outside. And third, that experiments in economics may be sensitive to subtle details of the experimental design.
Subjects: 
Utility
reference state
attitudes
priming
experiment
JEL: 
D01
D10
C91
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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