Note—Further Tests of Aspiration Level Effects in Risky Choice Behavior

This Note extends the work reported in Payne, Laughhunn, and Crum (Payne, J. W., D. J. Laughhunn, R. Crum. 1980. Translation of gambles and aspiration level effects in risky choice behavior. Management Sci. 26 1039–1060.) on the need to incorporate a target return, reference point, or aspiration level concept in the analysis of risky choice behavior. Two experiments are reported. The first experiment provides a more complete test of the model of reference point effects developed by Payne, Laughhunn, and Crum. A translation of outcomes procedure, which adds a constant to all outcomes, was used to vary the relationship of pairs of gambles to an assumed target or reference point. The results fully support the model. The second experiment provides evidence of the conceptual validity of the model by using explicit instructions to vary the target levels of managers, while holding gamble values constant.

Duke Scholars

Author John W. Payne Fuqua School of Business

Author Danny J. Laughhunn Fuqua School of Business