title: Fear, excitement, and financial risk-taking.
abstract: Can fear trigger risk-taking? In this paper, we assess whether fear can be reinterpreted as a state of excitement as a result of contextual cues and promote, rather than discourage, risk-taking. In a laboratory experiment, the participants' emotional states were induced (fear vs. control), followed by a purportedly unrelated financial task. The task was framed as either a stock market investment or an exciting casino game. Our results showed that incidental fear (vs. control) induced risk-averse behaviour when the task was framed as a stock investment decision. However, fear encouraged risk-taking when the very same task was framed as an exciting casino game. The impact of fear on risk-taking was partially mediated by the excitement felt during the financial task.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Marketing , KAIST College of Business , Seoul , South Korea.
authors.forename: Chan Jean
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Eduardo B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Andrade
mesh_terms: D001143:Arousal; D003463:Cues; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012309:Risk-Taking
keywords: Emotion; Excitement; Fear; Financial decision; Risk-taking