Previous studies have extensively confirmed that superstition has a wide range of impacts on economically consequential decisions. The underlying mechanisms, however, remain largely unexplored. In particular, superstitions can influence either people’s endogenous risk preferences or subjective...

In Chinese culture, the zodiac year of one’s birth is often associated with bad luck. This astrological superstition dates back more than two thousand years and is still prevalent in modern Chinese society. Using novel experimental techniques, we find evidence suggesting that people in China...

Superstition has a wide range of impacts on economic decisions such as investment, career choice and insurance purchase. Taking the Chinese zodiac year as an example, we apply experimental methods to study two important channels through which superstition affects subjects’ economic decisions....