Children do not exhibit ambiguity aversion despite intact familiarity bias

Abstract

The phenomenon of ambiguity aversion, in which risky gambles with known probabilities are preferred over ambiguous gambles with unknown probabilities, has been thoroughly documented in adults but never measured in children. Here, we use two distinct tasks to investigate ambiguity preferences of children (8- to 9-year-olds) and a comparison group of adults (19- to 27-year-olds). Across three separate measures, we found evidence for significant ambiguity aversion in adults but not in children and for greater ambiguity aversion in adults compared to children. As ambiguity aversion in adults has been theorized to result from a preference to bet on the known and avoid the unfamiliar, we separately measured familiarity bias and found that children, like adults, are biased towards the familiar. Our findings indicate that ambiguity aversion emerges across the course of development between childhood and adolescence, while a familiarity bias is already present in childhood.

Adolescents display distinctive tolerance to ambiguity and to uncertainty during risky decision making

“…However, ambiguity attitudes (known outcomes but unknown probabilities) showed nonlinear developmental trends, with ambiguity tolerance peaking in adolescence. This finding is in line with two previous studies that also found adolescents to be more tolerant of ambiguity than adults2022, but contradicts another recent study suggesting that children may be even more ambiguity tolerant24. More importantly, we found a similar nonlinear developmental trajectory in respondents’ uncertainty attitude.…”

“…At the same time, two recent studies suggest that adolescents are more ambiguity seeking than adults2022 (but see ref. 23), and another study suggests that young children may be ambiguity neutral24. However, no previous studies have elicited the choice behaviors and attitudes of pre-adolescent, adolescent, and adult decision makers within the same choice situation as well as between choice situations.…”

Let the Sunshine In? The Effects of Luminance on Economic Preferences, Choice Consistency and Dominance Violations

“…In line with this finding, other research has previously shown that risk and ambiguity preferences are only weakly correlated [26,27]. Research on aging has yielded similar conclusions, demonstrating different lifespan patterns for attitudes towards risk and ambiguity [35,[62][63][64].…”

Developmental perspectives on risky and impulsive choice

“…In yet another study Blankenstein and colleagues [46] found linear increases in ambiguity aversion from childhood through adulthood, while a follow-up study using a similar paradigm in participants in a similar age range found no age differences in ambiguity attitude [47]. Other studies have shown that younger children (ages 5 and 8) are ambiguity-neutral [80,81]. Given the lack of consistency in these results, future research will be required to better understand what factors might underlie these disparate patterns of age-related choice behaviour.…”