Abstract:
Behavioral economic research has tended to ignore the role of cultural
differences in financial and economic decision-making. The authors suggest that a
systematic bias affects existing behavioral economic theory—financial and
economic judgments, whether rational or irrational, are often assumed to be
universal. The authors conducted an empirical study in the United States and
China to examine how cultural background informs economic decision-making
and to test whether framing, morality, and out-group information affects
judgments of financial value and property ownership across cultures.
Results of the study demonstrated dramatic cultural differences in financial
value estimations, as well as on the influence of variables such as framing,
morality and group membership . Chinese participants made higher object value
estimates than Americans did, even when adjusting for differing national inflation
rates. In addition, the results showed that framing effects affected both American
and Chinese participants, but in different ways. Other contextual factors such as
morality information and group membership also affected Chinese participants’
judgments of financial values and property ownership . The results underscore the
importance of understanding the influence of cultural background on economic
decision-making.