Is risk attitude toward health outcomes context driven?

Economists consider personality as a non-cognitive asset that can have important consequences on individuals’ economic behavior. Van der Pol and Ruggeri showed, that risk attitude (RA) depends on whether individuals face choices regarding possible health gains in terms of life expectancy or quality of life. Here, we aim to explore this pattern by investigating whether individuals’ RA may change depending on the perception of the social arrangements, cultural and economic context in which they are asked to imagine going to live. Our study shows that, concerning the health domain, significant differences can be found in the RA of individuals imagining to experience a change in their set of social arrangements and standards of living. More specifically, individuals tend to be more risk averse when they are asked to move toward a country with a different religion, a lower average income, a different distribution of wealth and standard of living.