Whether a person believes the outcomes of his decisions are dependent upon skill or chance presumably influences the riskiness of his choices. 32 college students made a series of decisions while playing Jeopardy, a game which was perceived as requiring skill, and another series of decisions while playing a card game, the outcomes of which were believed to depend on chance. As expected, decisions made under a skill orientation were marked by (a) a higher mean level of risk and (b) a less variable pattern of risk than decisions made under a chance orientation. However, attempts to identify the process that mediated the relationship between skill-chance orientation and risk taking were unsuccessful.
References
1.
GoodnowJ. J.Response sequences in a pair of two-choice probability situations. American Journal of Psychology, 1955, 68, 624–630.
2.
KoganN.WallachM. A.Risk taking as a function of the situation, the person, and the group. In NewcombT. M. (Ed.), New directions in psychology III. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1967. Pp. 111–278.
3.
LittigL. W.Effects of skill and chance orientations on probability preferences. Psychological Reports, 1962, 10, 67–70.
4.
LupferM.JonesM.QuinC.Group risk taking as a function of three types of monetary incentive. Paper presented at the meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Louisville, April, 1970.
5.
SiegelS.Nonparametric statistics. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956.
6.
WeinsteinM. S.Achievement motivation and risk preference. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1969, 13, 153–172.
