RISKY CHOICES IN A RISK-TAKING EXPERIMENT: ARE SINGAPOREANS DIFFERENT FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD?
This paper introduces a rich experimental environment which allows one to control for possible status quo effects as well as the "anticipatory fear of loss" inherent in gambles by framing scenarios in terms of gains and losses. A total of 162 undergraduates — Africans, Caucasians, Singaporeans and Chinese — are recruited for this study. From the risk choices that students take, we can see how Singaporeans differ from their counterparts elsewhere. The results show that Singaporeans are less risk averse than African or Caucasian exchange students. In terms of risk seeking behavior, when using Caucasians as a reference group, Singaporeans and Chinese undergraduates are also relatively more risk seeking as well. The majority of the players are risk neutral in this experiment. Singaporeans, like the Caucasians and Chinese in the sample, are all more likely to favor risk neutral strategies if their default gamble is one with higher expected payoffs.