Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/127351 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper Series No. 534
Publisher: 
University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
Advice is important for decision making, especially in the financial sector. We investigate how individuals assess risk preferences of others given sociodemographic information or pictures. Both non-professionals and fi nancial professionals participate in this artefactual field experiment. Subjects mainly rely on the other's self-assessment of risk preferences and on gender when forming the belief about someone else's risk preferences. On average, subjects consider themselves to be more risk-tolerant than the person they evaluate. Subjects use their own risk attitude as a reference point for predicting others' risk preferences. This false consensus eff ect is less pronounced for young professionals than for senior and non-professionals. Furthermore, financial professionals predict risk preferences more accurately compared to non-professionals.
Subjects: 
Risk Preferences
Financial Advice
Artefactual Field Experiment
Behavioral Finance
JEL: 
G02
D81
C91
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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