Coping with Risk: The Role of Insurance, Compensation and   Protective Behavior
{'Code': '04050100', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'SBE', 'LongName': 'Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'SES', 'LongName': 'Divn Of Social and Economic Sciences'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Shelton White', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
Many decisions made by individuals, firms, consumers, citizens'                 groups, governments, regulatory bodies and courts involve dealing               with potential misfortunes or catastrophes before they occur--                  through insurance, risk avoidance behavior, or compensation for                 risk bearing-- or after they occur--through private or government               compensation.  These decisions often appear to be inconsistant,                 inequitable or irrational.  Insurers, uncertain about future                    awards, refuse to offer policies against certain risks because                  they base their decisions on worst-case scenarios.  Individuals                 react to risks inconsistently, treating small risks as though                   they were nonexistent (failing to wear seatbelts or to take                     precautions against AIDS) or so large as to overwhelm all other                 considerations (opposition to genetic recombination).                           Governmental attempts to respond to such concerns are often ad-                 hoc, such as the Delaney amendment, resulting in unanticipated                  contradictory outcomes.  This collaborative interdisciplinary                   research program examines these puzzling features of behavior                   within a multi-disciplinary tradition of research on biases and                 fallacies in decision making.  It investigates the question of                  whether these biases distort the functioning of institutions,                   markets and societal allocation of resources.  The research will                develop and evaluate several approaches designed to correct                     decision biases or protect individuals from their effects,                      including education, novel ways of presenting information, and                  mixed strategies coupling incentives and regulations with                       insurance and compensation.                                                                                                                                     The research plan organizes biases into four categories:                        reference-point effects, in which preferences for outcomes depend               on what they are compared to; contingent weighting, in which                    choice depends on the way in which a decision is expressed;                     decision rules, in which absolute priority is given to one                      attribute (e.g. saving money, avoiding catastrophic                             consequences); and threshold effects, in which small risks or                   costs (e.g. the risk of one cigarette or the extra cost of low-                 deductible insurance) are totally ignored even if they are                      repeated.  The research will examine whether such biases affect                 decisions about offering or purchasing insurance, setting                       premiums, compensating victims of misfortune, compensating people               for the risk of misfortune beforehand, and engaging in protective               behavior.  Multiple methods will be used, including                             questionnaires, laboratory studies, experimental markets,                       process-tracing, field studies, and microeconomic analysis.  The                results will bear on theoretical controversies within psychology,               economics and decision theory about the relevance of biases to                  real decision making, on the question of whether market                         competition reduces the effects of bias, and on questions about                 the nature of bias itself.
{'FirstName': 'Colin', 'LastName': 'Camerer', 'PI_MID_INIT': 'F', 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'Colin F Camerer', 'EmailAddress': 'camerer@hss.caltech.edu', 'NSF_ID': '000234795', 'StartDate': '09/15/1988', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'University of Pennsylvania', 'CityName': 'PHILADELPHIA', 'ZipCode': '191046205', 'PhoneNumber': '2158987293', 'StreetAddress': '3451 WALNUT ST STE 440A', 'StreetAddress2': None, 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Pennsylvania', 'StateCode': 'PA', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '03', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'PA03', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'GM1XX56LEP58', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, THE', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': 'GM1XX56LEP58'}
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[{'Code': '1321', 'Text': 'Decision, Risk & Mgmt Sci'}, {'Code': '9145', 'Text': 'SPECIAL PROGRAMS-RESERVE'}]
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1988&All=true', 'xml': '8809299.xml'}