Citation

Villejoubert G, Vallée-Tourangeau F. Front. Psychol. 2011; 2(online): 302.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Kingston University London Kingston Upon Thames, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00302

PMID

22110456

PMCID

PMC3216023

Abstract

Psychological research has firmly established that risk preferences are transient states shaped by past experiences, current knowledge, and feelings as well as the characteristics of the decision environment. We begin this article with a brief review of evidence supporting this conception as well as different psychological theories explaining how preferences are constructed. Next, we introduce the distributed perspective on human cognition and show how it may offer a promising framework for unifying seemingly incompatible accounts. We conclude by suggesting new directions for better capturing the essence of preference construction in laboratory research.

Language: en