Synonyms
Definition
The preference for known risks over unknown risks
Introduction
When you are faced with a decision, the first thing you may consider are the consequences – what happens when I take this action? For instance, when you consider going parachute jumping you expect this to be a lot of fun, but you also take into account that there is a chance you can get into an accident. To get an estimate about these odds you can go to the website of the United States Parachute Associations (http://www.uspa.org/facts-faqs/safety) and look up the numbers: the data from the last 10 years suggest there is a 1 in 130,000 chance of a fatality. However, for most decisions that we are confronted with, we rarely know the exact probability and outcome distributions associated with them, nor are those distributions available. For instance, what are the chances that we would actually like the experience of parachute jumping? And if so how much fun would it really be? If you...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Binmore, K., Stewart, L., & Voorhoeve, A. (2012). How much ambiguity aversion? Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 45, 215–238.
Blankenstein, N. E., Crone, E. A., van den Bos, W., & van Duijvenvoorde, A. C. K. (2016). Dealing with uncertainty: Testing risk- and ambiguity-attitude across adolescence. Developmental Neuropsychology, 41, 77–92.
Ellsberg, D. (1961). Risk, ambiguity, and the Savage axioms. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 61, 643–669.
Hayden, B. Y., Heilbronner, S., & Platt, M. (2010). Ambiguity aversion in rhesus macaques. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 4, 166.
Hertwig, R., & Erev, I. (2009). The decision-experience gap in risky choice. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13, 517–523.
Huettel, S. a., Stowe, C. J., Gordon, E. M., Warner, B. T., & Platt, M. L. (2006). Neural signatures of economic preferences for risk and ambiguity. Neuron, 49, 765–775.
Knight, F. (1921). Risk, uncertainty and profit. Boston: Hart, Schaffner & Marx.
Lauriola, M., Levin, I. P., & Hart, S. S. (2007). Common and distinct factors in decision making under ambiguity and risk: A psychometric study of individual differences. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 104, 130–149.
Levy, I., Snell, J., Nelson, A. J., Rustichini, A., & Glimcher, P. W. (2010). Neural representation of subjective value under risk and ambiguity. Journal of Neurophysiology, 103, 1036–1047.
Li, R., Brannon, E. M., & Huettel, S. a. (2015). Children do not exhibit ambiguity aversion despite intact familiarity bias. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1–8.
Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. (1994). Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism (and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): A reevaluation of the Life Orientation Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1063–1078.
Tymula, A., Rosenberg Belmaker, L. A., Roy, A. K., Ruderman, L., Manson, K., Glimcher, P. W., & Levy, I. (2012). Adolescents’ risk-taking behavior is driven by tolerance to ambiguity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109, 17135–17140.
van den Bos, W., & Hertwig, R. (2017). Adolescents display distinctive tolerance to ambiguity and to uncertainty during risky decision making. Nature Scientific Reports, 7, 40962.
Wakker, P. (2010). Prospect theory: For risk and ambiguity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
van den Bos, W. (2020). Ambiguity Aversion. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_2290
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_2290
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-24610-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-24612-3
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences