Cargando…

Children do not exhibit ambiguity aversion despite intact familiarity bias

The phenomenon of ambiguity aversion, in which risky gambles with known probabilities are preferred over ambiguous gambles with unknown probabilities, has been thoroughly documented in adults but never measured in children. Here, we use two distinct tasks to investigate ambiguity preferences of chil...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Li, Rosa, Brannon, Elizabeth M., Huettel, Scott A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4283450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25601848
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01519
_version_ 1782351268764712960
author Li, Rosa
Brannon, Elizabeth M.
Huettel, Scott A.
author_facet Li, Rosa
Brannon, Elizabeth M.
Huettel, Scott A.
author_sort Li, Rosa
collection PubMed
description The phenomenon of ambiguity aversion, in which risky gambles with known probabilities are preferred over ambiguous gambles with unknown probabilities, has been thoroughly documented in adults but never measured in children. Here, we use two distinct tasks to investigate ambiguity preferences of children (8- to 9-year-olds) and a comparison group of adults (19- to 27-year-olds). Across three separate measures, we found evidence for significant ambiguity aversion in adults but not in children and for greater ambiguity aversion in adults compared to children. As ambiguity aversion in adults has been theorized to result from a preference to bet on the known and avoid the unfamiliar, we separately measured familiarity bias and found that children, like adults, are biased towards the familiar. Our findings indicate that ambiguity aversion emerges across the course of development between childhood and adolescence, while a familiarity bias is already present in childhood.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4283450
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-42834502015-01-19 Children do not exhibit ambiguity aversion despite intact familiarity bias Li, Rosa Brannon, Elizabeth M. Huettel, Scott A. Front Psychol Psychology The phenomenon of ambiguity aversion, in which risky gambles with known probabilities are preferred over ambiguous gambles with unknown probabilities, has been thoroughly documented in adults but never measured in children. Here, we use two distinct tasks to investigate ambiguity preferences of children (8- to 9-year-olds) and a comparison group of adults (19- to 27-year-olds). Across three separate measures, we found evidence for significant ambiguity aversion in adults but not in children and for greater ambiguity aversion in adults compared to children. As ambiguity aversion in adults has been theorized to result from a preference to bet on the known and avoid the unfamiliar, we separately measured familiarity bias and found that children, like adults, are biased towards the familiar. Our findings indicate that ambiguity aversion emerges across the course of development between childhood and adolescence, while a familiarity bias is already present in childhood. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4283450/ /pubmed/25601848 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01519 Text en Copyright © 2015 Li, Brannon and Huettel. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Li, Rosa
Brannon, Elizabeth M.
Huettel, Scott A.
Children do not exhibit ambiguity aversion despite intact familiarity bias
title Children do not exhibit ambiguity aversion despite intact familiarity bias
title_full Children do not exhibit ambiguity aversion despite intact familiarity bias
title_fullStr Children do not exhibit ambiguity aversion despite intact familiarity bias
title_full_unstemmed Children do not exhibit ambiguity aversion despite intact familiarity bias
title_short Children do not exhibit ambiguity aversion despite intact familiarity bias
title_sort children do not exhibit ambiguity aversion despite intact familiarity bias
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4283450/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25601848
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01519
work_keys_str_mv AT lirosa childrendonotexhibitambiguityaversiondespiteintactfamiliaritybias
AT brannonelizabethm childrendonotexhibitambiguityaversiondespiteintactfamiliaritybias
AT huettelscotta childrendonotexhibitambiguityaversiondespiteintactfamiliaritybias