Consumers’ purchase decisions can be influenced by others’ opinions, i.e., word-of-mouth (WOM), and/or others’ actions, i.e., observational learning. While information technologies are creating increasing opportunities for firms to facilitate/manage these two types of social interaction,...

Much of the evidence raising doubts about Expected Utility Theory (EUT) comes from experiments involving hypothetical decisions. Most of the rest of the evidence comes from experiments where respondents are asked to make a large number of decisions, knowing that only one of these will provide...

Significant difference between response to real and hypothetical valuation questions is often referred to as hypothetical bias. Some economists have had success with using "cheap talk" (which entails reading a script that explicitly highlights the hypothetical bias problem before participants...

Receiving a gift can create an impulse to reciprocate, even when doing so may be inefficient and potentially harmful to a third party. For instance, after receiving bribes, people may exhibit impulses to reciprocate. This paper provides a theoretical framework for a pure gift effect on...

Men and women differ in their attitudes towards and preferences for risk while investing. Psychologists suggest that women lack confidence and are more methodical in their information processing and accumulation style. These factors contribute to the increased perception of risk in them as...

While weather has been shown to affect financial markets and financial decision making, a still open question is the channel through which such influence is exerted. By employing a multiple price list method, this paper provides direct experimental evidence that sunshine and good weather promote...